Bioinspired Color and Near-Infrared Endoscopy with Affibody Targeted Markers for Colorectal Cancer Surgery
Abstract
The Veterans Affairs Central Cancer Registry reports that every year 3,500 Department of Veterans Affairs patients are diagnosed with colorectal cancer and 1,200 patients die from the disease. In the general population these statistics are even more dire: more than 140,000 people are diagnosed every year with colorectal cancer in the United States, and about 50,000 succumb to the disease. The reason for these dire statistics is the late diagnosis of colorectal cancer, when prognosis is poor. Although various imaging technologies have been introduced to aid colonoscopy screening for colorectal cancer, the detection accuracy has not drastically improved over the last several years. During routine colonoscopy exams, physicians look for polyps in the colon, which are then removed and analyzed offline via histopathology. However, small polyps can be easily missed due to the low differentiation from the healthy lining of the intestine. In other patients, such as those with inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer is formed directly from flat pre-cancerous tissue. The lack of elevated growth component, as in polyps, creates an enormous challenge to detect these flat lesions during surveillance colonoscopy. For example, 50% to 80% of the lesions that are missed during surveillance colonoscopy are flat. Hence, there is a clinical need for developing imaging instruments that will help physicians in early detection of both flat lesions and small polyps during colonoscopy screenings in both military and civilian populations. We propose to develop an imaging sensor and several tumor-targeted probes that work in tandem and help improve early detection of flat lesions and small polyps during colonoscopy screenings in both military and civilian populations. Since current imaging technology, based on high tech cameras, sophisticated lenses, and color filters, has not solved this clinical problem, we are taking a radically different approach to create the next generation of colonoscopy instruments. The proposed imaging sensor is based on the elegant, evolutionarily honed design of the mantis shrimps compound eye. The mantis shrimp, which is considered one of the best predators in shallow water because of its exquisite visual system, combines very efficient photodetectors and nanoscale optical filters to sense up to 16 color channels (the human visual system has only 3 color channels). Our bio-inspired imaging sensor is realized by combining vertically stacked photodetectors and multiple color filters to be able to sense six different spectral channels: three spectral channels necessary to form a color image (i.e., red, green, and blue channel) and three near infrared channels that will be used to image multiple tumor-targeted markers. These markers are optimized in terms of size to go directly to the tumor sites and emit light once they are inside the tumors and excited with a laser light source. Hence, only cancerous tissues, such as polyps and flat cancerous lesions, will be highlighted with the proposed technology and presented to the physician during colonoscopy exams. The proposed imaging system will be tested in both small and large animal models of colorectal cancer. We expect to have high sensitivity in detecting cancerous tissue, and these animal models will help validate the accuracy and precision of our technology. These pre-clinical experiments will also help us generate the necessary preliminary data for a future human trial. We expect that after the completion of this grant, we will be able to start a clinical trial in patients with colorectal cancer and make the instrument commercially available within 5 years. The proposed imaging system will help civilian and military patient populations by providing novel tools that will be used routinely during colonoscopy screening. This use will enable both the early detection of flat lesions of colitis-associated cancer and the distinction of benign from malignant polyps, which
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Nov 19, 2019
- Source ID
- W81XWH1910299
Entities
People
- Viktor Gruev
Organizations
- United States Army
- University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign