Automated imaging systems form a core component of Cancer Imaging's research

Most solid cancers are much more successfully treated if caught early. The department exploits the interaction of light at both the micro- and macro-scopic level to detect, delineate, grade and treat early (predominantly pre-invasive) cancers. The department is currently focused on early cancer management issues in the Lung, Cervix, Prostate, Breast and Skin. This is achieved by developing novel procedures and improving our understanding of:

1. automated image analysis of cell preparations
2. in vivo tissue spectroscopy (reflectance, autofluorescence, fluorescence, Raman)
3. interactive/automated analysis of tissue preparations
4. in vivo tissue imaging (autofluorescence, fluorescence, reflectance)
5. confocal microscopy
6. photodynamic therapy
7. chemoprevention
8. tissue modeling (static and dynamic)

The department has a special emphasis on enabling the translation of research to clinical usefulness.

Our department has approximately forty staff of which five are independent scientists with academic appointments, scientific grants and programmes. The investigative staff working in the Cancer Imaging Department are Drs. David Garner, Martial Guillaud, Mladen Korbelik, Stephen Lam, Calum MacAulay, Branko Palcic, and Haishan Zeng.

More about Cancer Imaging

The main objectives of the Department are the development of means of detection and classification of early cancers and precancerous lesions at risk of developing into cancer.

The Department, along with Dr. Stephen Lam of the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medicine at UBC, in collaboration with Xillix Technologies Corp., have made possible the localization of early cancerous and precancerous lesions in the lung with more than 2x greater sensitivity than conventional white light bronchoscopy using tissue autofluorescence and other tissue optical properties. This development has culminated in a clinically useful device which is now used around the world and has led to the development of a similar device for the localization and detection of lesions in the stomach, esophagus, and colon. These devices are known as LIFE-Lung and LIFE-GI.

The Department, in collaboration with Drs. H. Lui and D. MacLean of the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Dermatology, UBC is also involved in work using tissue optical properties for the detection and diagnosis of skin diseases as well as methods of monitoring PDT dosimetry and drug kinetics.

A possible mechanism for PDT-induced development of tumor immunity. [View Image]

One of the senior scientists of the group, Dr. Mladen Korbelik, is involved in the study of the mechanisms of PDT activity and its interaction with the host's immune system and nitric oxide (NO).

The only non-invasive method of detecting the presence of early lung cancer and precancerous lesions in the lung is sputum cytology. Cancer Imaging in collaboration with a local Vancouver company, Oncometrics Imaging Corp., have developed a fully automated high resolution quantitative microscopy system (CytoSavant) to enable detailed automatic measurements of the DNA in cell nuclei. This system enables one to not only measure DNA amounts in cells but the size, shape, and texture (organization of DNA in cell) of the DNA in the cell nuclei. This makes possible the detection of MAC (Malignancy Associated Changes) in the obstensively normal cells of a tissue surrounding a cancerous lesion. The traditional problem with sputum cytology has been the lack or obviousness of diagnostic cells in the sample. In pilot studies using automated cell analysis for the detection of abnormal cells and the MAC changes in normal cells, a sensitivity of 70-88% has been achieved. Together with Oncometrics, we have started a multi-center sputum analysis field study to clinically demonstrate the sensitivity and specificity of such an approach.

Using both the LIFE device and the CytoSavant, our group is studying the natural history of lung neoplasia from its origins in normal tissue through hyperplasia, metaplasia, dysplasia, CIS to invasive carcinoma. We have quantitated the physical nuclear changes, the changes in the tissue architecture (using recently developed cellular sociology tools), and some of the genetic changes (using microdissection techniques with PCR for LOH detection) in collaboration with Dr. Adi Gazdar and Dr. John Minna of UTSMC. We are using results of these studies to perform intermediate biomarker endpoint based chemoprevention studies with subjects at high risk of developing lung cancer as well as to simulate the 3D development of neoplasias in bronchial epithelial tissue using a dynamic 3D model of bronchial epithelial tissue.

Other projects underway involve the use of these techniques in the cervix, bladder, larynx, breast and prostate as well as applied physics and engineering to the development of breast cancer screening methodologies, tissue transplantation issues and the improvement of quantitative microscopy.