LIGHT-SCATTERING TOOL PEERS INTO PANCREAS TO FIND CANCER

National Science Foundation (Usa) - Pancreatic cancer is difficult to detect early because the pancreas is deep inside the abdomen, making potentially cancerous cells hard to reach and identify without surgery. Researchers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) developed a new light-based technique that can identify precancerous and cancerous cysts--small, fluid-filled cavities in thebody -- by piggybacking on a standard diagnostic procedure. "This approach can be called a virtual biopsy, as it does not collect any tissue," said Lev Perelman, professor at Harvard University and director of the Center for Advanced Biomedical Imaging and Photonics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, whose team developed the tool with the support of the NSF Directorate for Engineering Biophotonics program...>>>