Optical Characterisation of Epithelial Tissue Function and Metabolism for Early Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Monitoring (360G-Wellcome-206498_Z_17_Z)

This project addresses new avenues for advanced diagnosis and treatment assessment of epithelial cancer. A novel polarisation-sensitive optical tomographic technique for quantitative 3D assessment of tissue function and metabolism will be devised and implemented. A clinically comprehensive set of tissue optical parameters (specifically, tissue optical absorption and scattering parameters), as markers for tissue oxygenation, melanin concertation in skin, chiral protein concentration and structural anisotropy, will be defined. The technology will be applied to characterise in terms of these parameters (i) 3D cell cultures in cancer proliferation and drug evaluation studies, (ii) ovarian cancer tissue samples, (iii) skin lesions, and (iv) tumour xenografts in radiobiology and radiotherapy studies. A relationship between the values of the optical parameters and tissue pathology, disease stage, and treatment response will be established, and quantitative clinical criteria for pathology recognition and treatment response assessment based on these values will be derived. These criteria will enable objective in-vivo early diagnosis and accurate neoplasm removal. The new technology will enable compressive in-vivo 3D lesion assessment in directly or endoscopically accessible organs, and comprehensive label-free assessment of cell-culture and small-animal models of cancer and other diseases. Key words: epithelial cancer; imaging; tissue function,metabolism, physiology; chiral protein; hypoxia; diagnosis