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A researcher is designing a micro-endoscope that can see deeper, which may help in detecting tumours early. Doctors at present insert camera-based endoscopes into patients to examine visible abnormalities like tumours.
Huikai Xie, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida (UF), is working on replacing the cameras with scanners that can ‘view’ under the surface of tissues - showing abnormal groups of cells or growth patterns before cancerous growths are big enough to be visible.
"Right now, endoscopes just take pictures of the surface tissue. So, if you see some injury, or abnormality, on the surface, that's good," Xie said.
"But most of the time, particularly with cancer, the early stages of disease are not so obvious. The technology we are developing is basically to see under the surface, under the epithelial layer."
Experiments with Xie's scanning ‘micro-endoscopes’ on animal tissue have been promising, even though his devices have yet to be checked on people, says an UF release.
The pencil-sized or smaller-sized endoscopes could one day permit physicians to sense tumours at earlier stages and remove tumours more accurately, increasing patients' chances of survival and improving their quality of life.
