Imaging Cancer Angiogenesis with Acoustic Angiography Ultrasound

早期发现是与癌症作斗争的一个关键组成部分，它比早期发现更能提高生存率。 当肿瘤被诊断为晚期时。然而，随着医生的目标是检测越来越小的 然而，对于肿瘤，现代成像模式的分辨率和灵敏度成为问题。所以在这 在这个项目中，我假设肿瘤可以通过观察血管结构来检测 使用一种新的超声技术，称为声学血管造影术，这是由保罗代顿博士开发的， 实验室血管生成，即新血管从现有血管中生长，受到肿瘤生长的刺激 因为它们需要新的脉管系统来供应它们的快速生长。然而，形成的新血管不会成为 成熟健康的脉管系统相反，肿瘤血管是渗漏的、紊乱的，并且通常成形为弯曲的和不规则的。 扭曲的形式声学血管造影使我们能够使用微泡造影剂和新型超声 可视化直径至少为100 μm的血管并评估个体血管迂曲程度的技术 血管 在这个项目中，我将描述三阴性乳腺癌模型中肿瘤发展的曲折性 并与正常血管进行比较。预期肿瘤具有较高的血管密度， 由于肿瘤生长诱导的异常血管生成猖獗，因此比健康组织更迂曲。 此外，我将根据声学血管造影图像，使用 放射学阅片员研究和定量肿瘤检测模型，以评估图像分类的准确性 (as肿瘤或健康的）用于不同大小的肿瘤。我们还将确定分子标记的分布 使用分子声学血管造影术，血管生成与可见迂曲度相关。最后，我们将评估 患者使用声学血管造影对可疑乳腺病变进行成像的临床可行性 活检前BI-RADS 4和5级病变，并进行读片员研究，以确定声血管造影是否 具有比传统超声更优越的上级诊断实用性，其目标是最终避免不必要的 活组织检查 我的论文研究的最终结果将决定是否血管迂曲显示声学 血管造影超声图像可用于检测肿瘤，并将建立最小可检测肿瘤 尺寸此外，它还将血管生成的分子成像与血管迂曲度相关联。未来研究 方向包括加深我对血管生成的细胞和分子机制的理解， 接受补充成像模式的培训。

Early detection is a critical component of the fight against cancer, and it results in better chances of survival than when tumors are diagnosed at advanced stages. However, as physicians aim to detect increasingly smaller tumors, the resolution and sensitivity of modern imaging modalities become problematic. Therefore, in this project, I hypothesize that tumors can be detected by visualizing the structure of the underlying blood vessels using a novel ultrasound technique called acoustic angiography which was developed in Dr. Paul Dayton’s laboratory. Angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels from existing ones, is stimulated by growing tumors as they require new vasculature to supply their rapid growth. However, the new vessels that form do not become mature, healthy vasculature. Instead, tumor vessels are leaky, disorganized, and often shaped into bent and twisted forms. Acoustic angiography allows us to use microbubble contrast agents and novel ultrasound technology to visualize vasculature at least 100 μm in diameter and assess the degree of tortuosity of individual blood vessels. In this project, I will characterize the tortuosity of developing tumors in a model of triple-negative breast cancer and compare it to that of normal blood vessels. Tumors are expected to have higher vascular density and tortuosity than healthy tissue because of the rampant, abnormal angiogenesis induced by tumor growth. Additionally, I will evaluate the minimum limit of tumor detection based on acoustic angiography images using a radiology reader study and a quantitative tumor detection model to evaluate the accuracy of image classification (as tumor or healthy) for tumors of different sizes. We will also determine if the distribution of molecular markers of angiogenesis is correlated to visible tortuosity using molecular acoustic angiography. Finally, we will evaluate the clinical feasibility of using acoustic angiography for imaging suspicious breast lesions by imaging patients with BI-RADS 4 and 5 lesions prior to biopsy and performing a reader study to determine if acoustic angiography has superior diagnostic utility than traditional ultrasound, with the goal of eventually avoiding unnecessary biopsies. The final results of my dissertation research will determine whether vascular tortuosity revealed by acoustic angiography ultrasound images can be used to detect tumors, and will establish the minimum detectable tumor size. Furthermore, it will also correlate molecular imaging of angiogenesis to vascular tortuosity. Future research directions include deepening my understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of angiogenesis and training in a complementary imaging modality.