Eddy Current Measurements: A Novel Noninvasive Tool for Detecting Early Lung Cancer
Abstract
The proposal plans to develop a novel, non-invasive patented Eddy current (EC) method for detecting early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Lung cancer, especially NSCLC, which comprises 85% of lung cancers, is an urgent priority among Veterans because of high risk for developing lung cancer due to being exposed to environmental carcinogenesis, stress, and increased rate of smoking during their service. The method uses an in-house designed and constructed EC probe to characterize the morphological features of biological tissue via specific paths and domain sizes of the induced ECs. We hypothesize that changes in EC characteristics could be due to changes in the tumor stroma or overexpression of receptors. Preliminary ex vivo measurements on surgically excised tissue from human patients undergoing surgical resection for different adenocarcinomas showed significant differences in the characteristics of ECs in tumors compared to normal tissue. ECs may be introduced in a partially electrical conducting medium by applying a time-varying magnetic field. The time-varying magnetic field is produced by an electromagnetic (EM) probe that consists of two parallel-axis multi-turn coils of wire, one serving as a primary coil and the other coil as the detector. The primary coil induces ECs in the sample and the detector coil picks up the presence of ECs either by monitoring the resulting voltage in the detector coil at a fixed phase, or the actual phase shift induced by the ECs in the sample. By making measurements with and without a sample, the presence and characteristics of ECs in the sample may be determined. In biological tissue, ECs may flow within the confines of a cell or its internal structures, within the extracellular matrix (ECM) completely by-passing the cells, or through the ECM and through the cells. Flow of ECs through the ECM is likely to be influenced by the concentration of charge carriers, their mobility, and the morphological structure, i.e., physiological characteristics of the tissue. Clinical pathological factors associated with lung cancer include anatomic features and various biological features such as amplification of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) or activating EGFR mutations. Our hypothesis is that the ability of biological tissue to form electrical ECs under the action of an externally applied transient magnetic field is inherently different between cancer and normal tissue. In addition to morphological changes in tissue, we hypothesize that changes in EM characteristics could be due to amplification of receptors, especially EGFR and expression of mutated EGFR in lung cancer. Furthermore, the signaling mediated through these proteins may change certain ion concentrations, especially calcium, and affect the flow of ECs, thereby altering the EM characteristics of the tumors. In this proposal, we will first analyze the migration of NSCLC cells in vitro in the presence of iEFs and growth factor EGF. Next we will determine if iEFs hinder lung cancer growth in mouse models. We will perform ex vivo measurements on harvested tissue to use EC detection to distinguish between NSCLC and surrounding normal tissue. These studies will identify changes in induced EC in tissue, which can occur during progression of lung tumors. Once validated as a new non-invasive method for treating lung cancer, iEFs may additionally result in the development of a new ex vivo and ultimately in vivo imaging modality to detect and study the progression of pre-malignant lung cancer. Ultimately, these studies may potentially result in new methods for image-guided pathology, assessment of surgical margins, and tools that could be used in clinical practice to detect lung cancer non-invasively at early stages using deep bronchoscopy with an EM probe at the tip of a bronchoscope. Finally, we anticipate that a new type of microscopy, EC microscopy, will result from the proposed work, and that complements con
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 07, 2017
- Source ID
- W81XWH1710233
Entities
People
- Ramesh K. Ganju
Organizations
- Ohio State University
- United States Army