I-Corps: Noninvasive detection of bladder cancer using ringing modality of atomic force microscopy

I-Corps：使用原子力显微镜振铃方式无创检测膀胱癌

• 批准号: 2041813
• 负责人: Igor Sokolov
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Tufts University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-01 至 2022-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2041813&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Noninvasive; detection; bladder; cancer

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a noninvasive diagnostic test to detect and monitor the presence of bladder cancer and to assess its grade. In the U.S. alone, there are 800,000 survivors living under the fear of a high chance of recurrence (50-80%) from bladder cancer. The majority of the patients require an in-office invasive monitoring procedure repeated every 3 to 6 months. This procedure yields high lifetime costs, pain, and possible complications from trauma to the urethra, which leads to a low patient compliance rate (40%). The proposed technology will provide seamless integration into the standard of care for patients who undergo regular standard cytology as part of their follow-up appointments. The goal is to provide a noninvasive, rapid, reproducible, high accuracy test that is easy to perform and interpret.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a combination of an advanced imaging modality and machine learning methods to process those images for the detection of bladder cancer. The imaging modality utilizes the so-called ringing mode of atomic force microscopy (AFM), which provides high-resolution images of the surface of cells extracted from a patient’s urine. Processing these images through machine learning algorithms permits the assignment of a diagnostic score, which will help urologist/oncologists to monitor recurrence and progression of the cancer. The method may seamlessly be incorporated into the existing clinical practice, by using cells currently examined in cell cytology. Cytology testing is a noninvasive procedure that suffers from low accuracy when detecting cancer. Preliminary results have shown that the proposed technology may have a much higher accuracy (94%). This accuracy exceeds even the currently used standard of practice, an invasive optical examination of the bladder (cystoscopy).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发非侵入性诊断测试，以检测和监测膀胱癌的存在并评估其成绩。仅在美国，就有80万个幸存者居住在bladeder癌的重复发生的可能性很高（50-80％）的情况下。大多数患者需要每3至6个月重复一次办公室内的侵入性监测程序。该程序从创伤到尿道的终身成本，疼痛以及可能的并发症产生较高的并发症，从而导致患者依从性较低（40％）。拟议的技术将为接受定期标准细胞学的患者提供无缝的护理标准，作为其后续约会的一部分。目的是提供一种易于执行和解释的无创，快速，可重复的，高精度测试。此I-Corps项目基于高级成像方式和机器学习方法的结合，以处理这些图像，以检测到膀胱癌的检测。成像方式利用了原子力显微镜（AFM）的所谓响声模式，该模式提供了从患者尿液中提取的细胞表面的高分辨率图像。通过机器学习算法处理这些图像允许分配诊断评分，这将有助于泌尿科医生/肿瘤学家监测癌症的复发和进展。该方法可以通过使用当前在细胞学学中检查的细胞无缝地纳入现有的临床实践中。细胞学测试是一种无创方法，在检测癌症时的准确性低。初步结果表明，所提出的技术可能具有更高的精度（94％）。这种精度甚至超过了当前使用的实践标准，即膀胱镜检查（膀胱镜检查）的侵入性光学检查。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准来评估被认为是宝贵的支持。