Multidimensional endoscopy for early cancer detection

在英国，每年有超过55,000名患者被诊断患有食道癌或肺癌；44000人将死于这种疾病。目前，大多数患者在疾病处于晚期（局部或远处扩散）时被诊断出来，5年生存率不到10%。因此，早期疾病诊断仍然是一个关键的临床未满足的需求。为了及早发现这些癌症，患病风险高的患者可能会接受内窥镜检查。内窥镜是一根又长又细又柔软的管子，一端有光源和摄像机，用来传递身体内部的图像。它们复制了我们的眼睛能看到的东西，如果我们能看到身体内部的话。内窥镜对癌症的监测和诊断至关重要，然而，许多食道癌（食物管）和肺癌开始时都是小的异常，用传统的内窥镜很难发现。这项研究的重点是通过设计一种专业的摄像机来增强内窥镜医生的视力，这种摄像机可以探测到我们眼睛看不到的光的特性。我们还将在台式系统中使用这种新相机，该系统可以在将组织送到病理学家检查癌症之前，非常快速地分析从体内取出的组织（活检）。我们的新相机的设计具有成本效益，并提供额外的信息，以帮助医生诊断食道癌和肺癌，并最终可能取代目前的标准护理。

Each year in the UK, over 55,000 patients will be diagnosed with oesophageal or lung cancer; a staggering 44,000 will die from their disease. The majority of patients are currently diagnosed when their disease is at a late stage (with regional or distant spread), yielding less than 10% survival over 5 years. Therefore, a key clinical unmet need remains for early disease diagnosis. To detect these cancers early, patients that are at a high risk of disease might undergo endoscopy. An endoscope is a long, thin, flexible tube with a light source and video camera at one end to relay images from inside the body. They replicate what our eye could see if we were able to look inside the body. Endoscopy is vital for surveillance and diagnosis of cancer, however, many cancers of the oesophagus (food pipe) and lung start out as small abnormalities that are hard to spot using conventional endoscopes.The focus of this research is to augment the vision of the endoscopist by designing a specialist video camera that detects the properties of light that our eyes are blind to. We will also use this new camera in a benchtop system that can analyse tissue that has been taken out of the body (biopsied) very quickly, before it is sent to a pathologist to check for cancer. Our new cameras are designed to be cost effective and provide extra information to help doctors with diagnosing cancer in the oesophagus and lung, and could ultimately replace the current standard-of-care.