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BME Seminar: Regine Choe, Diffuse Optical & Correlation Tomography for Longitudinal Monitoring of Bone Healing and Cancer Treatment

Prof. Regine Choe, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Rochester

River Campus, Robert B. Goergen Hall, Sloan Auditorium (Room 101)

Abstract

Diffuse optical tomography (DOT) and diffuse correlation tomography (DCT) are non-invasive three-dimensional hemodynamic imaging techniques that can probe deep tissue using light sources in the near-infrared spectral window (650 - 950 nm). By modeling the photon propagation in tissue, one can quantify oxygenated hemogblobin, deoxygenated hemoglobin, water and lipid concentrations with DOT, and blood flow with DCT. These intrinsic physiological parameters have great potential to assess therapeutic efficacy of breast cancer therapy and new treatments for bone grafts. In addition, the use of non-ionizing radiation and technologically simple, fast, inexpensive instrumentation makes diffuse optical and correlation tomography attractive for translational research.

In this presentation, clinical and preclinical research tools and approaches to test the capabilities of diffuse optics in early prediction of therapeutic efficacy will be introduced. For monitoring bone healing after graft implantation, temporal and spatial blood flow distributions from a murine segmental defect model will be presented for different graft types with varying healing capacity: autografts, allografts, and allografts with tissue-engineered periosteum. For monitoring chemotherapy for breast cancer, high correlation between temporal blood flow changes and the treatment efficacy assessed by tumor size changes in a murine breast cancer model will be shown.  In addition, the potential of a multi-parametric approach based on clinical diffuse optical measurements to predict neoadjuvant chemotherapy efficacy will be demonstrated.