Byline: Manual martin
NewsWise – A new 3D tissue analysis of thyroid tumor is still unfamiliar to the pathologist. Instead of cutting the removed tissue into thin slices and two-dimensional viewing them under the microscope as before, they can now check almost the entire tissue sample on the screen and rotate it as required to identify pathological changes Can It is made possible by so-called non-invasive histopathological 3D imaging. “The special thing about this method is that it can analyze the full biopsy blocks of a tumor in three dimensions in a short time without changing or destroying the tissue. This means that the sample can still be used for further molecular biological examinations, ”Robert Zaboray, the leader of the group of EMPA Center for X-ray analyzes, who developed this technique.
Personal treatment
In association with the pathologist of the Burn University, Zaboray was able to demonstrate that its new method could detect clinically relevant tissue characteristics in the thyroid tumor. The X-ray phase-contrast micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) also creates the smallest difference in soft tissue. These three-dimensional images of tissue samples are analyzed using machine learning. The EMPA researcher hopes that it will enable the pathologist to be more accurately diagnosed and pregnant. The biggest challenge is to treat patients as individually as possible – in other words, to avoid overtreating of low -risk tumors as well as to treat and monitor a high -risk patients.
Around 300 million people worldwide are affected by thyroid cancer. However, the characteristics of the tumor often vary from the patient to the patient. These average of bio chemical and molecular characteristics of these tumors are known as a biomarker. They help to detect cancer in an early stage or indicate how aggressive a tumor can be and which therapy it can respond.
Tissue
A major advantage of 3D analysis is that it also detects tumor characteristics in deep tissue layers that can be ignored by traditional methods. “When the thyroid tumors grow aggressive and quickly, they often break into nearby healthy tissue and even invade blood vessels. Such vascular invasions are therefore a sign of tumor maliciousness and severity, ”Zaboray explains. An early and more accurate diagnosis enables doctors to function in a more rapid and more targeted manner, thus improves diagnosis of the patient’s disease.
In collaboration with the university and the Insel Hospital Burn, Zabor and his team examined a thyroid tumor sample from a patient, which had recently died. The patient was admitted to a hospital for a tumor in 2011, which was classified as a gentle, but later repetitive into a fatal form. “Traditional sectional analysis recalled deep capsular hernias in tissue, which we were able to identify the retrospective using our method,” Zabore. Based on this discovery, a retrospective study of such recurrence cases is now being done, in which samples of patients across Europe are being examined, despite initially, despite harmless conclusions, later developed severe tumors. Mirto Foundation, Bank Vontobel Donation Foundation, The Foundation for Research for Tumor Diagnostics and Penction, Dr Hans Altschüler Foundation and thanks for the liberal support of four other foundations, can be studied.
A perfect addition
According to Robert Zaboray, new 3D tissue analysis can basically be integrated into clinical workflows and ideally can be supplemented in traditional sectional analysis. “Established procedures are firmly anchored in everyday medical system. The purpose of our technology is to disrupt these procedures, but to provide additional benefits. “Development of new technologies for personal medicine is also aiming for” Personal Health and Related Technologies “(PhRT), a strategic research focus of Eth domain institutions, with the project embedded.
The technique also appears to be promising for other tumor types such as prostate cancer or lung cancer. Thanks to the Funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Zabor can now test its three -dimensional histology techniques in colorectal cancer metastasis. He would also like to change complex molecular analysis with simple imaging methods. “If we are successful in correcting the molecular” fingerprint “of the molecularly converted cell functions in tumor tissues with imaging texture features in the micrometer range, its vision.
(T) Empa (T) Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technology
