Live monitoring of cancer treatment

Diffuse optical spectroscopy (DOS) and diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) are optical techniques that can be used to study physiological changes in tumours. The EU-funded 'Noninvasive monitoring of blood flow and oxygen dynamics as biomarkers in cancer tumours' (MOBODICT) project used these techniques to study haemoglobin concentration, oxygenation and blood flow in biological tissues in vivo.

Researchers developed a non-contact system to study the experimental therapies on implanted tumours in mice. This system allowed monitoring of physiological changes in tumours after therapy without the need to sacrifice animals at several time points.

A developed Monte Carlo simulation package for light transport aided the analysis and design of the optical systems. The code was particularly designed to allow simulation of both DCS and broadband or time-resolved DOS in arbitrary geometries (e.g. from magnetic resonance imaging).

It is known that malignant tumours attract the formation of new and chaotic blood vessels via a complex process called angiogenesis. This has been used for the development of treatment methods that rely on the inhibition of angiogenesis to suppress tumour growth. However, despite initial successful inhibition of angiogenesis, tumours may adapt and regain angiogenesis so that they can grow again.

MOBODICT researchers used optical tools to study anti-angiogenic therapy on renal cell carcinoma in mice to obtain important insight into the mechanics of this therapy approach. They investigated the possibility of detecting initial signs of emerging therapy resistance. In the final stage, they explored the application of these techniques in superficial cancers in the neck region.