CHICAGO—Clinical trials at Northwestern University reveal that a new colon-cancer screening technique that uses optical technology—low-coherence enhanced backscattering (LEBS) spectroscopy—to analyze tissue samples taken from the base of the rectum may be more effective than traditional colonoscopy.
As reported by Physorg.com, light shines on the tissue, scatters and some of that light bounces back to sensors in the probe. A computer analyzes the pattern of light scattering, looking for the "fingerprint" of carcinogenesis in the nanoarchitecture of the cells. Researchers obtained biopsies from patients undergoing colonoscopies and found that LEBS could detect the presence of growths elsewhere in the colon even though it just analyzed tissue from the base of the rectum.
The study provides a proof of concept that this sort of analysis could be a minimally intrusive colon cancer screening technique. Further studies with a compatible fiber-optic probe are under way for multicenter clinical validation.