New test measures treatment effectiveness
Date: Sept. 10, 1999
Time: 2:43 pm
Researchers at the Princess Margaret Hospital's Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto have developed a way to use high-frequency ultrasound imaging to determine whether or not a cancer treatment is working. The method works within a matter of hours from the first treatment.
"This discovery has important clinical potential in that we may now be able to monitor the effects of chemotherapeutic agents and other anticancer treatments like radiation in patients and know within hours if we have chosen the best approach to killing the tumour," said Dr. Michael Sherar.
The noninvasive technique uses high-frequency ultrasound biomicroscopy to detect cell death in cancerous tumours. Areas of tissue experiencing cell death, or apoptosis, appear very bright in an ultrasound scan when compared with normal living tissue. The level of apoptosis, measured by the percentage of cells undergoing it after chemotherapy or radiation treatment, correlates with the response of a tumour to treatment.
Since high-frequency ultrasound has a short penetration depth, it has only been used to monitor cells in laboratories, treatment in animals and superficial cancers in a small number of patients. The challenge of developing ways to monitor apoptosis in tumor cells embedded deeper in the body remains.
"High-frequency ultrasound is a quick, relatively low-cost, and potentially highly accurate way to measure treatment success," said Dr. Gregory Czarnota, who along with Dr. Michael Kolios helped uncover the process. "Usually patients endure a full course of treatment before we know if it is really working to kill their cancer cells."
Currently the only way to assess the effectiveness of a certain drug or treatment plan is to have a patient undergo treatment, then surgically biopsy the tumour for examination under a microscope.
The finding was reported in today's edition of British Journal of Cancer.
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