International prize for 'no needles' breast cancer diagnosis technique

3 Oct 2012 08:54 AM

A PhD student co-funded by STFC has won a prestigious award for demonstrating that a technique developed originally at STFC’s Central Laser Facility could take away the need for a needle biopsy in breast cancer diagnosis. Marleen Kerssens, also funded by the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has shown that SORS (spatially offset Raman spectroscopy), a method using a laser to see inside objects without making an incision, is viable for detecting if abnormalities found through mammograms are malignant or benign. Currently a needle biopsy is the only way to confirm this. Marleen received the Coblentz Society Student Award, an international prize to recognise young scientists in the area of vibrational spectroscopy, at a conference in Kansas City, USA recently (Sunday 30 September 2012). 

The team Marleen is working in at the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has used the SORS method to look at the molecular fingerprints of breast calcifications. The technique involves bouncing light off of the tiny grains of breast tissue and measuring the light scattered at different colours to pick up their molecular signatures which indicate if a cancer is present. This research has shown a correlation between the signature and the type of cancer present and Marleen’s work is also looking at how these calcifications form. Currently the abnormalities are seen on mammograms in the form of dots and shadows but can only be identified as malignant or benign through a needle biopsy - the next step. This involves a cut through the skin and tissue and an anxious wait by patients for their results, and in 70-90 percent of cases the calcifications turn out to be benign. Work by Marleen and her team at the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust could lead in the next decade, to the biopsy being replaced by a non-invasive screening with instantaneous results. The technique, however, still needs a lot of refinement.

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