Abstract 3925: Optical coherence tomography imaging in cancer research.

Abstract

Abstract Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an established imaging technology with a greater than 10 year history in the clinic. Over the past 5 years, an increasing number of cancer investigators have employed OCT in preclinical studies and have found that its unique capabilities address some of the gaps left by existing intravital imaging approaches. However, because OCT is relatively new to the cancer research community, these capabilities and limitations are not broadly known. Therefore, to facilitate translation, we will summarize OCT to the cancer research community. This will include a description of how it works, what its capabilities are, and what its role in preclinical cancer research is now and what it is likely to become over the next decade. The basic principles of OCT will be summarized to allow investigators to compare it with alternative imaging technologies and identify investigations where OCT is best suited. The imaging modes of OCT will be described and examples of use in cancer investigations will be given. The use of OCT for angiography at spatial and temporal scales not accessible to other technologies will be described. We will also present anatomical imaging of tumors using OCT and highlight its ability to assess tumor volume and to map tumor viability. Finally, the advantages of OCT-based label-free lymphangiography will be described and compared with existing approaches for lymphatic vessel imaging. We will end our discussion by communicating briefly some of the innovations in OCT that are happening now in research and engineering laboratories and the new capabilities that such innovations are likely to enable. Through this presentation, we hope to establish dialogues to drive technology development toward answering critical problems in cancer research. Citation Format: Benjamin J. Vakoc, Dai Fukumura, Timothy P. Padera, Rakesh K. Jain, Brett E. Bouma. Optical coherence tomography imaging in cancer research. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3925. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-3925