Researchers have discovered a way to transform a consumer-grade digital camera into an inexpensive, portable medical imaging device, capable of cancer detection in real time. By adding an LED light, an objective lens, and a fiber-optic bundle to a $400 digital camera, researchers and engineers at at Rice University and MD Anderson Cancer Center created a fiber-optic fluorescence microscope capable of distinguishing between normal, precancerous, and cancerous tissues.
Lead author Rebecca Richards-Kortum noted that abnormal cells were easily identifiable, even on the camera's small LCD screen. Her Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging Laboratory specializes in equipment for the early detection of cancer and other diseases.
According to Richards-Kortum, future software could allow medical professionals who are not pathologists to use the imaging device for routine cancer screening, and the technology could save lives in countries where conventional diagnostic technology is too expensive.
"The dyes and visual techniques that we used are the same sort that pathologists have used for many years to distinguish healthy cells from cancerous cells in biopsied tissue," said study co-author Mark Pierce (
News -
Alert). He pointed out that the tip of the imaging cable rests lightly against the skin, unlike a painful biopsy, and the results are available in seconds rather than days.
Results of the first tests of the imaging device were published in the online journal PLoS ONE.
Ms. Graham is a writer and editor with a broad publishing background and a current focus on health and wellness. To read more of her articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by
Erin Monda