The American Cancer Society estimated that 207,090 women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010 and that 39,840 women died of this disease in the United States alone during that year. This translates to about 1560 deaths per day attributed to cancer - overall, in the US, 1 in every 4 deaths is attributed to cancer. In the US, cancer is the second most common cause of death only next to deaths due to heart disease. Future progress in several key areas of cancer research and drug discovery will rely upon the capacity of investigators to reliably detect, characterize and track subtle changes that occur in the tumor environment during the transformation from the benign to cancerous state. The central objective of this grant proposal is to design, develop and evaluate computational and imaging tools, which provide insight regarding the mechanical and morphological changes that occur starting with the onset of a malignancy and follow those changes throughout the course of disease progression using a representative ensemble of cancer tissue specimens from breast cancer cases. These new technologies will facilitate the discovery of novel diagnostic and prognostic clues, which are not apparent using traditional methods of assessment. The overarching objectives of the proposed project are: 1) to investigate changes in the mechanical characteristics of sampled tissues through accurate non-linear finite element modeling based on the experimentally captured atomic force microscopy (AFM) data, 2) to increase the sampling throughput to allow automated assessment of multiple regions of interest, simultaneously, using an array of micro force sensors based on micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology, and 3) to compare the mechanical changes, expression signatures, and spatial distribution of biomarkers in the normal tissue samples with those collected at the onset of malignancy and throughout the primary stages of disease progression for breast cancer cases. Based on successful completion of these aims, we will design, develop and evaluate a reliable means for providing multimodal decision support for performing automated, higher-throughput characterization of specimens. Finally, our team will deploy, test and optimize the updated suite of computational and modeling tools at strategic adopter sites (Emory University and University of Pennsylvania - see letters of support). To accomplish this, we have assembled an excellent team of engineers and clinicians from the University Of Maryland, College Park and The Cancer Institute of New Jersey for this extremely important NIH project.

Public Health Relevance

The American Cancer Society estimated that 207,090 women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010 and that 39,840 women died of this disease in the United States alone during that year. The central objective of this grant proposal is to design, develop and evaluate computational and imaging tools, which provide insight regarding the changes that occur in terms of biomarker and morphologic signatures starting with the onset of a malignancy and follow those changes throughout the course of disease progression using a representative ensemble of breast cancer tissue specimens.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01CA161375-04
Application #
8819519
Study Section
Biomedical Computing and Health Informatics Study Section (BCHI)
Program Officer
Ossandon, Miguel
Project Start
2012-03-12
Project End
2016-02-29
Budget Start
2015-03-01
Budget End
2016-02-29
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2015
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Maryland College Park
Department
Engineering (All Types)
Type
Biomed Engr/Col Engr/Engr Sta
DUNS #
790934285
City
College Park
State
MD
Country
United States
Zip Code
20742
Park, Kihan; Chen, Wenjin; Chekmareva, Marina A et al. (2018) Electromechanical Coupling Factor of Breast Tissue as a Biomarker for Breast Cancer. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 65:96-103
Chennubhotla, C; Clarke, L P; Fedorov, A et al. (2017) An Assessment of Imaging Informatics for Precision Medicine in Cancer. Yearb Med Inform 26:110-119
Foran, David J; Chen, Wenjin; Chu, Huiqi et al. (2017) Roadmap to a Comprehensive Clinical Data Warehouse for Precision Medicine Applications in Oncology. Cancer Inform 16:1176935117694349
Yildirim, Esma; Foran, David J (2017) Parallel Versus Distributed Data Access for Gigapixel-Resolution Histology Images: Challenges and Opportunities. IEEE J Biomed Health Inform 21:1049-1057
Park, Kihan; Desai, Jaydev P (2016) Micropositioning and Control of an Underactuated Platform for Microscopic Applications. IEEE ASME Trans Mechatron 21:2635-2646
Boregowda, Rajeev K; Medina, Daniel J; Markert, Elke et al. (2016) The transcription factor RUNX2 regulates receptor tyrosine kinase expression in melanoma. Oncotarget 7:29689-707
Pandya, Hardik J; Park, Kihan; Chen, Wenjin et al. (2016) Toward a Portable Cancer Diagnostic Tool Using a Disposable MEMS-Based Biochip. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 63:1347-53
Pandya, Hardik J; Roy, Rajarshi; Chen, Wenjin et al. (2015) Accurate characterization of benign and cancerous breast tissues: aspecific patient studies using piezoresistive microcantilevers. Biosens Bioelectron 63:414-424
Pandya, Hardik J; Park, Kihan; Desai, Jaydev P (2015) Design and fabrication of a flexible MEMS-based electromechanical sensor array for breast cancer diagnosis. J Micromech Microeng 25:
Chen, Wenjin; Brandes, Zachary; Roy, Rajarshi et al. (2015) Robot-Guided Atomic Force Microscopy for Mechano-Visual Phenotyping of Cancer Specimens. Microsc Microanal 21:1224-35

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