New imaging technique can detect cancer in five minutes

Image of bone cancer cells

Carol Forsloff - The earlier cancer can be detected, the more potential there is for cure, so a new imaging device that can find cancer cells is a critical help in this, as scientists find.

At the University of Illinois researchers have put together an imaging device that can detect cancer cells early.

“The diagnosis is made based on very subjective interpretation – how the cells are laid out, the structure, the morphology,” said Boppart, who is also affiliated with the university’s Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. “This is what we call the gold standard for diagnosis. We want to make the process of medical diagnostics more quantitative and more rapid.”

No longer will people have to wait and worry about getting results, because of this new tissue-imaging device.

This technique is a microscopic process called nonlinear interferometric vibrational imaging (NIVI),  that can produce color-coded tissue images in less than five minutes with 99 percent confidence.

Stephen A. Boppart, professor and physician, who holds appointments in electrical and computer engineering, bioengineering and medicine, is the lead researcher on the team, with the research to be printed in the next edition of the journal Cancer research.

This new technique focuses not on cell and tissue structure but constructs images based on molecular composition so that there can be differentiation between tumors and healthy tissue.