Medical Device Link.

Originally Published MDDI February 2003

R&D DIGEST

Among cancer treatments under current study is the use of angiogenesis inhibitors to limit or prevent tumor growth. Angiogenesis is the method by which tumors connect to blood vessels in the body to tap sources of nutrients and oxygen. The result is that the tumor metastasizes to other organs. If angiogenesis can be prevented, the cancerous tissue cannot spread and may die. 

To quantify the effects of various agents, such as new drugs, on capillary growth, blood vessel properties must be precisely mapped and measured. This task has usually required scientists to manually trace the vessels over several days to quantify the intricate images. 

Because results were often less than perfect, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI, Troy, NY) developed an automated system that can map capillaries in a live tumor with great precision. The diagnostic tool, called RPI-Trace3D, is in use at Harvard Medical School (Boston) and at Northeastern University (Boston). The patent-pending device was developed by a team led by Badri Roysam, director of the Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems at RPI.
The RPI-Trace3D system incorporates electronic microscopes connected to computers to generate complex 3-D images, enabling scientists to peer deep inside living tumors. The system makes it possible to identify and trace all the capillaries of a living tumor in less than two minutes.

Researchers using the device expect the system to significantly improve the identification of cancer-fighting drugs. Edward B. Brown, PhD, a researcher at the Harvard Medical School Department of Radiation Oncology, says the RPI team has generated algorithms that trace all the vessels in a 3-D network, as well as identify a number of properties of the vessels. “This allows us to quantify these vessels accurately for the first time,” he explains.


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