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Evaluation of perfusion, edema, and necrosis by optical coherence tomography to decide tumor outcome

BASIC DATA OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT

  • ARRS code: J1-60017

  • TITLE: Evaluation of perfusion, edema, and necrosis by optical coherence tomography to decide tumor outcome

  • PRICE CLASS: C
  • PROJECT LEADER: Jošt Stergar, PhD
  • LEADING ORGANISATION: The Jožef Stefan Institute
  • PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATION: Institute of Oncology Ljubljana
  • DURATION: 1.1.2025 – 31.12.2027
  • FINANCING: Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency

 

SHORT SUMMARY:

The involvement of the tumor stroma in tumor growth is of a large interest in determining tumor progression and treatment outcome. Tumor vascularization is an important property of the stroma that gives insight into the delivery of nutrients and oxygen to the tumor. It is usually chaotic and follows the continuous growth of the tumor. Beside the pure biological insight, vasculature could be used as a prognostic factor of tumors, correlating with the aggressiveness of the tumor and subsequently the treatment outcome. Although vessel architecture appears to provide valuable insights, not many studies focus on biologically important perfusion.

 

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a rapidly developing optical imaging modality that offers a high resolution, non-invasive imaging at affordable price. It is already widely accepted in ophthalmology with budding applications in other biomedical fields. When properly calibrated, it can provide images of the total attenuation coefficient that relate to tissue morphology. Extensions of OCT, such as OCT angiography (OCT-A), offer a perfusion imaging method in addition to tissue morphology imaging.

 

The main goal of this study is to employ OCT-based determination of perfusion, vasculature, necrosis, and edema as a tool for determining the outcome in tumor treatment. To achieve this, we propose first an acquisition of a series of OCT and OCT-A images on a limited number of mice models of different tumors that is aimed at both creating a reliable imaging protocol – a prerequisite for quantitative imaging – and obtaining a dataset for image processing and algorithm development. Further, we propose a calibration of the imaging system using tissue phantoms and development of algorithms for extraction of the total attenuation coefficient and quantitative perfusion evaluation. Such approach will enable monitoring of perfusion, edema, and necrosis in the final part of the project. There, we propose an imaging of a larger number of different mice models of tumors that will be monitored before, during and after treatment and evaluated using OCT. The outcome of tumor treatment will be correlated with OCT-based metrices of perfusion, edema, and necrosis. Furthermore, as part of the animal study, we propose a verification of the perfusion imaging performance using controlled electrophoretic pulses with known effects on perfusion. The results of the animal study will be compared to appropriate gold standard, such as segmentation of tumor, peritumor and necrotic areas, histology and staining with perfusion-sensitive dies.