Detecting Lung Cancer – Thinking Outside the Tumor

Scientists in Anant Madabhushi's computational imaging lab at Case Western Reserve University have started thinking outside the box--or in their case, looking outside the tumor. They're hoping that this novel computerized approach represents a historic leap in diagnosing cancer using just routine CAT scans. If proven successful, it would be a new, non-invasive way to more easily, accurately and inexpensively identify whether certain tumors especially nodules frequently found on lung CAT scans, for example, are cancerous or harmless. Currently, lung-cancer screenings involve a radiologist identifying suspicious-looking nodules on a CAT scan. Patients are then subjected to invasive and expensive surgical biopsies or other procedures to analyze the nodules.
So far, however, Case Western Reserve researchers have used a computer to analyze the regions outside the tumor and the blood vessels nearby to successfully predict whether those nodules are cancerous--not through deeper examination or by cutting into them. The latest research was highlighted in a pair of recent publications in which Madabhushi, the F. Alex Nason Professor II of Biomedical Engineering at the Case School of Engineering, was the senior author.