Scientists try to detect early ovarian cancer

A screening system in development at the University of Arizona is expected to provide a breakthrough in the early detection of ovarian cancer.

By using holograms and merging medical and optical science, researchers Raymond Kostuk and Jennifer K. Barton are developing a way of seeing enough varied depth in ovarian tissue to detect microscopic cancer cells in their earliest stages. That would be a huge advance in the fight against an insidious disease that kills most women within five years of diagnosis.

The researchers expect to spend the next five years fine-tuning a wand-like instrument that's anticipated to be a "game changer" for medicine if it does what is intended - allow high-risk women to know whether they actually have ovarian cancer before having their ovaries removed.

Bolstering Kostuk and Barton's work is a five-year, $2.4 million grant that the federal National Institutes of Health awarded them last month. At the end of the five-year period, the researchers hope to have a laparoscopic screening device - a wand with small lenses and a hologram inside that will work like a high-powered microscope.

Laparoscopy refers to a type of minimally invasive surgery in which a small incision is made in the abdominal wall and an instrument called a laparoscope is inserted to permit structures within the abdomen and pelvis to be seen. Most patients receive general anesthesia during the procedure.

"I think we're really making some very new contributions here, both in optical technology as well as this application in the medical field," said Kostuk, a professor of optical sciences.

The grant money will allow the researchers to do three major things: improve the performance of a prototype of the technology Kostuk and Barton already have developed; package the technology into a laparoscopic system that can be taken into the operating room; and perform a pilot study on women who already are having their ovaries removed.

Ultimately, Kostuk and Barton want to help save lives and contribute to a broader understanding of how ovarian cancer progresses.

"Our hope is that it would detect it earlier by providing more information," said Barton, who heads the university's department of biomedical engineering.