Cancers of the upper aero-digestive tract, which includes the oral cavity, oropharynx, and esophagus, are associated with rising incidence and uniformly poor survival, primarily due to diagnosis at a late, incurable stage. While visual screening and biopsy are recommended for at-risk individuals, the standard white-light exam frequently misses areas of early neoplasia. Moreover, incomplete resection leads to frequent recurrence. There is an important need for new imaging tools to improve early diagnosis and to guide effective treatment. Optical molecular imaging provides a unique solution to greatly improve clinical outcome. Over the last 5 years, we have developed optically active contrast agents, delivery formulations, and imaging systems which provide the ability to monitor and quantify molecular, functional, and morphologic biomarkers of early neoplasia. In this renewal, we propose to solve the clinical and technical challenges needed to realize these potential advantages in one organ system - the upper aero-digestive tract.
In Aim 1, we will optimize and translate contrast agents and imaging systems for early diagnosis of intraepithelial neoplasia, culminating with pilot in vivo studies to assess sensitivity and specificity. Once lesions are identified, neoplastic tissue must be completely resected to prevent progression or recurrence.
In Aim 2, we will develop molecular imaging systems to enable image-guided therapy of intra-epithelial neoplasia. We will develop and test guidance approaches for: image-guided open surgery in the oral cavity;image-guided endoscopic resection in the esophagus;and image-guided robotic surgery in the oropharynx. In the next 20 years, the number of cancer deaths worldwide will double. As successful cervical cancer screening programs indicate, early detection and treatment using optical molecular imaging could reduce cancer mortality and incidence by 4 times--a result equal to or better than any blockbuster drug! The translational bioengineering studies proposed here will result in low-cost, portable tools to improve early detection and image-guided therapy of intraepithelial neoplasia in the upper aero-digestive tract, providing a foundation to extend these tools to other organ sites.

Public Health Relevance

Cancer is a major global health problem. More than 10,000,000 malignancies are diagnosed each year, and 80% of these arise on epithelial surfaces. Improved identification and treatment of early cancers and precancerous lesions represents the most important opportunity to reduce the morbidity and mortality of cancer.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01CA103830-06A1
Application #
8040636
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-SBIB-V (55))
Program Officer
Baker, Houston
Project Start
2004-08-01
Project End
2016-07-31
Budget Start
2011-09-23
Budget End
2012-07-31
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$975,000
Indirect Cost
Name
Rice University
Department
Biomedical Engineering
Type
Schools of Engineering
DUNS #
050299031
City
Houston
State
TX
Country
United States
Zip Code
77005
Liu, Chih-Hao; Nevozhay, Dmitry; Schill, Alexander et al. (2018) Nanobomb optical coherence elastography. Opt Lett 43:2006-2009
Yang, Eric C; Schwarz, Richard A; Lang, Alexander K et al. (2018) In Vivo Multimodal Optical Imaging: Improved Detection of Oral Dysplasia in Low-Risk Oral Mucosal Lesions. Cancer Prev Res (Phila) 11:465-476
Yang, Eric C; Tan, Melody T; Schwarz, Richard A et al. (2018) Noninvasive diagnostic adjuncts for the evaluation of potentially premalignant oral epithelial lesions: current limitations and future directions. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol 125:670-681
Tang, Yubo; Carns, Jennifer; Richards-Kortum, Rebecca R (2017) Line-scanning confocal microendoscope for nuclear morphometry imaging. J Biomed Opt 22:1-6
Bailey, Maria J; Verma, Nishant; Fradkin, Leonid et al. (2017) Detection of precancerous lesions in the oral cavity using oblique polarized reflectance spectroscopy: a clinical feasibility study. J Biomed Opt 22:65002
Haber, Jason; Sokolov, Konstantin (2017) Synthesis of Stable Citrate-Capped Silver Nanoprisms. Langmuir 33:10525-10530
Shadfan, Adam; Darwiche, Hawraa; Blanco, Jesus et al. (2017) Development of a multimodal foveated endomicroscope for the detection of oral cancer. Biomed Opt Express 8:1525-1535
Haber, J M; Gascoyne, P R C; Sokolov, K (2017) Rapid real-time recirculating PCR using localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) and piezo-electric pumping. Lab Chip 17:2821-2830
Quang, Timothy; Tran, Emily Q; Schwarz, Richard A et al. (2017) Prospective Evaluation of Multimodal Optical Imaging with Automated Image Analysis to Detect Oral Neoplasia In Vivo. Cancer Prev Res (Phila) 10:563-570
Bailey, Maria J; Sokolov, Konstantin (2016) Depth-resolved measurements with elliptically polarized reflectance spectroscopy. Biomed Opt Express 7:2861-76

Showing the most recent 10 out of 75 publications