John Viator, associate |
Early
detection of melanoma, the most aggressive skin cancer, is critical
because melanoma will spread rapidly throughout the body. Now,
University of Missouri researchers are one step closer to melanoma
cancer detection at the cellular level, long before tumors have a chance
to form. Commercial production of a device that measures melanoma using
photoacoustics, or laser-induced ultrasound, will soon be available to
scientists and academia for cancer studies. The commercial device also
will be tested in clinical trials to provide the data required to obtain
U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for early diagnosis of
metastatic melanoma and other cancers.
“Using
a small blood sample, our device and method will provide an earlier
diagnosis for aggressive melanoma cancers,” said John Viator, associate
professor of biomedical engineering and dermatology in the Christopher
S. Bond Life Sciences Center. “We compare the detection method to
watching an eight-lane highway full of white compact cars. In our tests,
the cancer cells look like a black 18-wheeler.”
Currently,
physicians use CT or MRI scans for melanoma cancer detection, costing
thousands of dollars. Viator’s photoacoustic device emits laser light
into a blood sample, and melanin within the cancer cells absorbs the
light. Those cancer cells then expand as the lasers rapidly heat and
then cool the cancer cells, making them prominent to researchers. The
device also would capture the expanded cells, identifying the form of
cancer the physicians are fighting and the best treatment method.
Viator
has recently signed a commercialization license to begin offering the
device and method to scientists and academia for research. They are also
preparing studies for FDA approval for clinical use, which is expected
to take approximately two to three years. Viator says the final device
will look similar to a desktop printer, and the costs to run the tests
in a hospital would be a few hundred dollars.
“We
are attempting to provide a faster and cheaper screening method, which
is ultimately better for the patient and the physician,” Viator said.
“There are several melanoma drugs on the horizon. Combined with the new
photoacoustic detection method, physicians will be able to use targeted
therapies and personalized treatments, changing the medical management
of this aggressive cancer. Plus, if the test is as accurate as we
believe it will be, our device could be used as a standard screening in
targeted populations.”
A more detailed article on Viator’s work
MU Researcher’s Photoacoustic Device Finds Cancer Cells Before They Become Tumors from MU News Bureau on Vimeo.
