Researchers in Nature Biomedical Engineering on April 11, 2022 said, Cerenkov radiation managed to capture the location of tumors and cancer in patients by showing a bluish light.
Cerenkov radiation is produced by high-speed particles that travel faster than light through materials, such as body tissues. In Cerenkov luminescence or CLI imaging, the particles released by the radio tracer cause the target tissue to vibrate and relax by emitting light, which is then captured by the camera.
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“When compared to standard tumor scans, Cerenkov light images were classified as acceptable or higher in accuracy for 90 percent of patients,” said Magdalena Skubal, cancer researcher at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. /4/2022).
Between May 2018 and March 2020, in the largest clinical trial of its kind to date, 96 participants underwent CLI and standard imaging, such as positron emission tomography/computed tomography, or PET/CT. Participants with various diagnoses, including lymphoma, thyroid cancer, and metastatic prostate cancer, received one of five radio tracers and were then imaged by a prototype — a camera in a light-tight container.
Skubal and colleagues found that the CLI detected all radio tracers, suggesting that the technology is more flexible than PET/CT scanning, which works with only a few radio tracers. The CLI images are not as precise as the PET/CT scan images.
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“But CLI can be used as an initial diagnostic test or to assess the general size of a tumor undergoing treatment. This will be a quick and easy way to see if something is wrong… [yang memerlukan] further investigation,” said Edwin Pratt of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Antonello Spinelli, a preclinical imaging scientist at the Experimental Imaging Center in Milan, Italy, said the findings reinforce the previous technology as a cheap and promising alternative. The discovery could expand access to nuclear imaging in hospitals.
(Web)
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