Treating Tumors with Light and Sound
In lumpectomy surgeries, operations where a (usually cancerous) lump is removed from the breast, many small, early-stage tumors can’t be felt by hand during an exam, which makes them difficult to locate during surgery. For tumors like these, a doctor typically inserts a thin guide wire, less than a millimeter wide, into the breast before the lumpectomy, using mammography or an ultrasound to make sure that the tip of the wire is sitting inside the tumor. However, because the position of the wire is not visible to the surgeon, finding the tumor is still a challenge. To combat this, BU ECE Professor Ji-Xin Cheng has helped invent a new way to study the body using light instead of invasive, and potentially toxic, chemical stains and labels, in order to make this procedure faster, more accurate, and safer.
A new, experimental device called AcouStar is a sensor patch on the skin that picks up acoustic signals from the breast tumor, generated by very short laser pulses, and sends information on the tumor’s position to a tablet. This is meant to pinpoint tumors so that they can be taken out faster and more accurately. Working with Vibronix, a company founded by Cheng and his colleague Pu Wang, and with support from the National Science Foundation’s Small Business Innovation Research program, AcouStar is getting ready to move beyond the prototype stage.