ABOUT
Overview
The BIOPHASMA project will develop an advanced biophotonic tool for the personalized rapid diagnosis in open surgery of cancer structures/cells of the colon and rectum in order to provide solutions to clinical needs
BIOPHASMA
The BIOPHASMA project will develop an advanced biophotonic tool for the personalized rapid diagnosis in open surgery of cancer structures/cells of the colon and rectum in order to provide solutions to clinical needs. Its operation will be based on the collection, recording and rapid analysis of the characteristic spectral imprints of biostructures with the technique of Raman spectroscopy for accurate discrimination of healthy boundaries / tissues from cancerous in real time. The Raman spectroscopy is a spectroscopic technique with high detection sensitivity and spatial resolution of few μm. The spectral fingerprint which is produced during laser-biostructure interaction is unique and characterizes the biostructure. Any biochemical alteration related to inflammatory or cancer state is reflected on the spectral fingerprint. In literature numerous studies can be found verifying the accuracy and the sensitivity of the technique, as a tool for the discrimination between healthy and malignant tissues/cells either in ex vivo or in vivo. However, there are no accessible and deficient. In addition, the major clinical difficulty of the in vivo delimitation of the smaller cancer nodules with high accuracy is still not well-determined and faced successfully.
The objectives of the proposed project are:
The creation of an integrated database that will include ex vivo spectral fingerprints of human tissues, obtained from the colon or/and rectum, combined with biopsy results and relevant historical patient profiles, which will allow the characterization of the acquired spectra by using machine learning algorithms.
The development of a pilot study of the biophotonic system in preclinical environment (in situ in rat model). The goal is the posterior verification of the prototype regarding the achieved spatial resolution, sensitivity and selectivity on different types of tissues and its operation control according to the security standards.
The investigation of the pilot in vivo studies of the biophotonic system in patient-volunteers, where the ulterior goal is the use of the biophotonic system in clinical praxis, in an “open surgery” for the treatment of the colorectal cancer.
The Biophotonic System
