Optical Tomography System Using Short Pulse Laser for Early Lung Cancer Detection

Optical Tomography System Using Short Pulse Laser for Early Lung Cancer Detection
Sponsor: Florida Photonics Center of Excellence

Early diagnosis, localization and minimally invasive treatment of lung cancer are critical to its effective curative treatment. Sensitivity and specificity of conventional bronchoscopy for detection of early malignant changes are low. Due to the limitations of conventional bronchoscopy, there is an urgent need for an accurate method capable of detecting these hidden abnormalities reliably so that pre-cancer and cancer occurrence can be directly treated at the earliest, and presumably, the most curable stage. The nascent but rapidly developing technology of time-resolved optical tomography using short pulse laser holds the promise of providing non-invasively detailed information about the tissue interior by measuring the temporal profile of the time-varying transmitted and reflected optical signals. To achieve these goals, detailed experimental study of delivery of laser energy with high efficiency in tissue samples, phantoms, biochemical species and animals, such as mice and rats with lung tumor, is being performed. Delivery of pulsed laser light to the cancerous cells and tumor is done using hollow waveguides having different coatings for high transmission efficiency.

Publications:

Mitra, K., “Optical Tomography System using Short Pulse Laser for Early Lung Cancer Detection,” Florida Tech Conference, St. Petersburg (FL), May 17-18 (2004). – invited paper