Coherence Imaging for Assessing Colorectal Neoplasia

结直肠癌（CRC）是美国男性和女性中第三大诊断癌症，预计2008年约有150，000例新发病例。它也是美国癌症死亡的第二大原因，预计今年将有近5万人死于CRC。与大多数癌症一样，早期发现是提高生存率的关键。 本研究的目的是通过开发新的光学方法来非侵入性评估结直肠组织的健康状况，以提高CRC的早期检测。为了实现这一目标，我们建议开发互补的相干成像方法来筛查和监测结直肠上皮。 新的光学方法是基于相干成像的原理。这种成像方法的关键属性是，它能够以~10 μm的分辨率进行深度分辨测量，最大深度为~1 mm。对于筛查，我们将使用新的白色光OCT方案，该方案允许在可见光谱中进行光谱测量;对于监测方法，我们将使用我们的 角分辨低相干干涉（a/LCI）方法，其使用傅立叶平面成像来执行深度分辨核形态测量。 本研究的长期目标是创建一套相干成像工具，用于非侵入性评估结直肠组织健康。为实现这一目标，我们提出以下具体目标： 1)仪器开发。我们将设计和实施新的相干成像仪器，使检查结直肠组织的离体组织研究。 2)动物研究。我们将用动物组织进行实验，以确定两种相干成像方法评估结直肠上皮组织病理的能力。我们选择了氧化偶氮甲烷（AOM）诱导的大鼠癌变模型，这是常用的化学预防研究结直肠癌。 3)离体人体组织研究。我们将进行离体人体组织研究，以证明a）a/LCI技术可以检测肠易激综合征（IBD）患者结直肠组织中的癌前病变，B）我们的白色光OCT方法将生成用于配准目的的合适组织图像。

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most diagnosed cancer in the United States among both men and women, with approximately 150,000 new cases expected in 2008. It is also the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. with nearly 50,000 expected to die from CRC this year. As with most cancers, early detection is the key to improved survival rates. The objective of this research is to improve early detection of CRC by developing new optical methods for non‐invasively assessing the health status of colorectal tissues. To achieve this goal, we propose to develop complimentary coherence imaging methods for screening and surveillance of colorectal epithelium. The new optical methods are based on the principle of coherence imaging. This key attribute of this imaging approach is that it enables depth resolved measurements with ~10 μm resolution up to a depth of ~1 mm. For screening, we will use our new white light OCT scheme that allows spectroscopic measurements in the visible spectrum; for surveillance methods, we will us our angle-resolved low coherence interferometry (a/LCI) approach that uses Fourier plane imaging to execute depth resolved nuclear morphology measurements. The long range goal of this research is to create a suite of coherence imaging tools for noninvasive assessment of colorectal tissue health. To achieve this goal, we propose the following specific aims: 1) Instrument development. We will design and implement new coherence imaging instrumentation to enable examination of colorectal tissues for ex vivo tissue studies. 2) Animal studies. We will execute experiments with animal tissues to define the capabilities of both coherence imaging methods for assessing the pathology of colorectal epithelial tissues. We have selected the azoxymethane (AOM) induced rat carcinogenesis model, which is commonly used for chemopreventive studies of CRC. 3) Ex vivo human tissue studies. We will undertake studies of ex vivo human tissues to demonstrate that a) a/LCI technology can detect pre‐cancerous lesions in colorectal tissues from patients with irritable bowel disease (IBD) and b) our white light OCT method will generates suitable tissue images for co-registration purposes.