Case Jason R, Young Madison A, Dréau D, Trammell Susan R
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Department of Physics and Optical Science, 9201 University City Boulevard, Charlotte, North Carolina 28223, United States.
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Department of Biological Sciences, 9201 University City Boulevard, Charlotte, North Carolina 28223, United States.
J Biomed Opt. 2015 Nov;20(11):116003. doi: 10.1117/1.JBO.20.11.116003.
Lumpectomy coupled with radiation therapy and/or chemotherapy is commonly used to treat breast cancer patients. We are developing an enhanced thermal IR imaging technique that has the potential to provide real-time imaging to guide tissue excision during a lumpectomy by delineating tumor margins. This enhanced thermal imaging method is a combination of IR imaging (8 to 10 μm ) and selective heating of blood (∼0.5°C ) relative to surrounding water-rich tissue using LED sources at low powers. Postacquisition processing of these images highlights temporal changes in temperature and the presence of vascular structures. In this study, fluorescent, standard thermal, and enhanced thermal imaging modalities, as well as physical caliper measurements, were used to monitor breast cancer tumor volumes over a 30-day study period in 19 mice implanted with 4T1-RFP tumor cells. Tumor volumes calculated from fluorescent imaging follow an exponential growth curve for the first 22 days of the study. Cell necrosis affected the tumor volume estimates based on the fluorescent images after day 22. The tumor volumes estimated from enhanced thermal imaging, standard thermal imaging, and caliper measurements all show exponential growth over the entire study period. A strong correlation was found between tumor volumes estimated using fluorescent imaging, standard IR imaging, and caliper measurements with enhanced thermal imaging, indicating that enhanced thermal imaging monitors tumor growth. Further, the enhanced IR images reveal a corona of bright emission along the edges of the tumor masses associated with the tumor margin. In the future, this IR technique might be used to estimate tumor margins in real time during surgical procedures.
乳房肿瘤切除术联合放射治疗和/或化学疗法常用于治疗乳腺癌患者。我们正在开发一种增强型热红外成像技术，该技术有可能通过描绘肿瘤边缘来提供实时成像，以在乳房肿瘤切除术中指导组织切除。这种增强型热成像方法是红外成像（8至10μm）与使用低功率LED光源相对于周围富含水的组织选择性加热血液（约0.5°C）的组合。这些图像的采集后处理突出了温度的时间变化和血管结构的存在。在本研究中，荧光、标准热成像和增强型热成像模式以及物理卡尺测量，被用于在19只植入4T1-RFP肿瘤细胞的小鼠的30天研究期内监测乳腺癌肿瘤体积。在研究的前22天，通过荧光成像计算的肿瘤体积遵循指数生长曲线。在第22天后，细胞坏死影响了基于荧光图像的肿瘤体积估计。从增强型热成像、标准热成像和卡尺测量估计的肿瘤体积在整个研究期内均显示出指数生长。在使用荧光成像、标准红外成像和卡尺测量估计的肿瘤体积与增强型热成像之间发现了很强的相关性，表明增强型热成像可监测肿瘤生长。此外，增强型红外图像揭示了沿肿瘤边缘与肿瘤团块边缘相关的明亮发射光环。未来，这种红外技术可能用于在手术过程中实时估计肿瘤边缘。
