Laser technique detects and colour-codes cancer tumours

The microscopy technique - called nonlinear interferometric vibrational imaging (NIVI) - can produce colour-coded images of tissue, outlining clear tumour boundaries, with more than 99 per cent confidence in less than five minutes.

In addition to taking a day or more for results, current diagnostic methods are subjective, based on visual interpretations of cell shape and structure. A small sample of suspect tissue is taken from a patient and a stain is added to make certain features of the cells easier to see. A pathologist looks at the sample under a microscope to see if the cells look unusual, often consulting other pathologists to confirm a diagnosis.

‘But the diagnosis is made based on very subjective interpretation - how the cells are laid out, the structure and the morphology,’ said Prof Stephen Boppart, who is affiliated with the university’s Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.

Rather than focus on cell and tissue structure, NIVI assesses and constructs images based on the molecular composition of the cells. Normal cells have high concentrations of lipids but cancerous cells produce more protein. By identifying cells with abnormally high protein concentrations the researchers could accurately differentiate between tumours and healthy tissue.