Thanks to a recent $7.5 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, a Northwestern University professor will literally shine a light on colon cancer.
Over the next five years, McCormick School of Engineering Professor Vadim Backman will be conducting further research and clinical trials on an optical technology that he hopes will eventually be used in the medical mainstream as a routine colon pre-screen for patients.
The multi-faceted grant will be used to launch clinical trials at four different sites. The clinical core will be at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, while other trials will be conducted at the University of Chicago, Indiana University and Stanford University. The grant will also fund further research on the actual scientific mechanisms at work.
In Backman's current trials, a simple fiber optic probe is inserted into the rectum. Light is scattered on the surrounding rectal tissue, and the resulting fingerprint is then analyzed. It is a minimally invasive procedure.
The optical technology is based on the biological phenomenon of the "field effect," which indicates that if a patient has a precancerous or cancerous lesion somewhere in the colon there are some very subtle changes that can be seen biologically throughout the entire organ, not just at the site of the polyp.
The advantage of Backman's technology is that it is very sensitive to small structures. Perturbations such as slight changes in blood supply or the microarchitecture of cells, otherwise invisible under a microscope, will be illuminated and observed.
Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of death from cancer in the United States according to the NCI. "It's a shame people die from colon cancer because it's preventable," said Backman. "There are other cancers that are more difficult to find and treat."
Hemant K. Roy, M.D., who has worked closely with Backman and will be leading the clinical trials at his ENH site, hopes that the pre-screen will help better select the patients who need further examination. "We hope that this research will validate that a simple approach could be useful in detecting the risk of colon cancer and help target the percentage of the population that actually needs a colonoscopy," said Roy.
2008 Woodie Awards
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