The Effects of Tumour Blood Flow and Oxygenation Modifiers on Subcutaneous Tumours as Determined by NIRS

CH-overtone regions as diagnostic markers for near-infrared spectroscopic diagnosis of primary cancers in human pancreas and colorectal tissue

We have investigated the application of near-infrared spectroscopy for detection of human primary pancreatic and colorectal cancers. Spectra from cancerous and normal tissue were collected from a total of 37 surgically resected pancreatic and colorectal patient tissue specimens using a fibre-optic probe. Major spectral differences were observed in the CH-stretching first (6,000-5,400 cm(-1)) and second overtone (9,000-7,900 cm(-1)) regions. By use of artificial neural networks, linear discriminant analysis, and cluster analysis as pattern-recognition methods the spectra were classified into cancerous and normal tissue groups with accuracy up to 89%. We also explored differences between the spectra obtained from colorectal and pancreatic tissue. Spectral data from cancerous and normal tissue were classified organ-specifically into four groups with accuracy between 80 and 83%. Our results indicate that CH-overtone regions, besides serving as diagnostic markers for NIR spectroscopic diagnosis of primary human pancreas and colorectal cancers, are also useful for elucidating differences between the spectra obtained from colorectal and pancreatic cancerous tissue.

Past, present, and future of oxygen in cancer research

The first pathologists, oncologists, and medical physicists were aware that tumors were populated by an aberrant vasculature. The classic observations of Thomlinson and Gray in the 1950's established that O2 diffusion distances caused tumor to grow in cords. Tumor necrosis was observed surrounding a Krogh cylinder of viable tumor. That work helped explain earlier work by Warburg, who demonstrated a predisposition for tumors to favor anaerobic respiration, and it became the basis for 5 decades of subsequent research aimed at improving tumor oxygenation at the time of radiation. The role of O2 in modifying radiation response was attributed exclusively to the reactive free radicals that can be formed when O2 is present. These radicals produce approximately three-fold more irreparable double strand breaks in DNA. Subsequently it became clear that tumor had nutritional insufficiencies in addition to hypoxia. Ischemic regions are hypoglycemic, acidotic, have poor penetration of drugs, increased interstitial pressure, and altered immunological states. Ischemic regions can have intermittent reflow and associated redox stress. The relative impact of O2 compared to these associated phenomenon, and the degree to which hypoxia causes or follows these associated physiologic stresses, have been studied in detail. ISOTT scientists are responsible for much of the elucidation of the specific effects of O2, ADP/ATP ratios, hypoglycemia, and acidosis on tumor responses to radiation and hyperthermia. Many questions still remain.