Scientists and clinicians are exploiting optical techniques in conjunction with established clinical modalities like CT to evaluate parameters such as morphology, vasculature, blood flow and oxygenation in suspect tissue. Others are pairing optical tomography or spectroscopy with MRI in order to differentiate benign from malignant lumps in the breast.
Meanwhile, significant efforts are also under way to apply optical imaging in therapeutic monitoring - evaluating the efficacy or otherwise of molecularly targeted therapies for cancer - and to better understand the disease states that exist post-therapy.
"Optical methods may be able to tell clinicians very early if chemotherapy is working," noted Albert Cerussi of the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic (Irvine, CA) in a session on multimodal imaging over the weekend.
Cerussi and his co-workers at Beckman and the University of California, Irvine, are working towards that goal. More specifically, they're pioneering a non-invasive, near-infrared technique called diffuse optical spectroscopic imaging (DOSI) to monitor the progress of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer (chemotherapy given to patients prior to surgery/radiotherapy).
Ultimately, DOSI is all about early identification of resistance factors during treatment - information that can be used by oncologists to adapt the patient's treatment plan accordingly. Although it's early days, "DOSI offers a possible combination of convenience, cost-effectiveness and multimodal integration," Cerussi told delegates.
A multicentre clinical trial looks like the next step.