These studies will demonstrate the feasibility of the nano-device concept in actual cancer cells in tissue culture. This work will provide the basis for animal and clinical trials that will follow the period of this contract. This project targets the development and construction of ultrasound systems for the detection of cancerous tumors. The instruments are intended to be more sensitive to small tumors than current methods. The detection method will identify the cancerous lesions based upon their pulsations.
All tissues experience some level of pulsation due to the perfusion of blood with the heart cycle.
Malignant tissues though, have an increased blood supply compared with normal tissues, and therefore will present with a greater pulsation amplitude. The increased blood supply, necessary for the mass to sustain growth, forms when the tumor is approximately 1 mm in diameter. Thus it is expected this technique will be able to routinely detect a cancerous mass on the order of 3 mm in diameter. The analysis techniques developed by the investigators allow the detection of pulsations more than ten times smaller than pulsations in normal tissue. In preliminary studies detecting breast cancer, malignant lesions showed a median pulsatility three times greater than the surrounding non-cancerous tissue.