| Project Detail |
Tomography microscopy for intraoperative histopathology analysis
Histology, the evaluation of tissues and cells under a microscope, is critical for diagnosis, staging and treatment direction in cancer. It requires the removal of biopsies, which are sectioned and stained for later investigation. However, the staining protocol is not applicable in vivo, and the final tissue sample inspection is possible only after several hours. The EU-funded SpeckleCARS project aims to develop fast, label-free tomography microscopy with vibrational sensitivity to obtain 3D images with a quality comparable to traditional stained samples. The use of a wide-field reflection scheme and label-free contrast do not require tissue removal and provide instantaneous intraoperative 3D histological data.
Histology is central to the diagnosis, staging, and treatment of cancers. It requires the removal of small regions of suspect tissues (biopsies) that are later sectioned and stained with haematoxylin and eosin (HE). However, histology suffers from major weaknesses: First the standard HE protocol cannot work in vivo and requires ex vivo biopsies. Second HE is labour intensive, time consuming and the final tissue sections inspection is possible only after 12 hours. A faster but less accurate protocol, known as extemporaneous histology, can be performed in 40 min and is used in an intra-operative context to guide surgeries. The SpeckleCARS project aims to develop for the first time fast label free tomography microscopy with vibrational sensitivity to provide images with tridimensional improvement as compared to extemporaneous histology and in near-perfect concordance with conventional stained HE histology. This pioneering approach overcomes all the previous challenges: Using a wide field reflection scheme and label free contrast rules out all the drawbacks due to tissue removal and external labelling. It provides instantaneous intraoperative 3D histological data, improving the accessibility and accuracy of tumour detection, diagnosis and treatment. Combining the latest advances in 3D tomography reconstruction algorithms, high power laser systems together with key innovations in random speckle illumination and hyperspectral vibrational imaging, the SpeckleCARS project will provide for the first time volumetric histology imaging in real time over large (mm) fields of view without the need of tissue removal. To demonstrate the power of the developed technologies both ex vivo human and in vivo mouse cancer assessments will be conducted in collaboration with pathologists. The SpeckleCARS approach is broadly applicable to all cancer types and to any tissue diagnostic requiring histological data, so the project breakthroughs will benefit many medical and biology applications. |
