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Big bang technology adapted for cancers and burns

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Friday, 29 January 2010

 

Technology used to detect the echo of the Big Bang is being adapted for use in assessing burns and superficial cancers such as skin cancer.

 

Medical physicist Associate Professor Vincent Wallace of The University of Western Australia's School of Physics is the recipient of an Australian Research Council grant of almost $200,000 to investigate a technique already in use in fields including astronomy and remote sensing. Combining the novel technique with other high-resolution imaging methods could aid doctors in the fight against disease.

 

Terahertz rays (T-rays) are at the opposite end of the spectrum to X-rays and, while not penetrating deeply, can provide images of burns and cancers including breast and gastro-intestinal without the danger of ionising radiation. Combining T-rays with another technology called Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), which provides cross-sectional scans of tissues very much like ultrasound but at a higher resolution, could be used to detect early-stage cancers that do not show up on X-ray or through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

 

A/Professor Wallace said the new medical diagnostic techniques would be especially applicable in Australia, the country with the highest skin cancer incidence rate in the world. Australians are four times more likely to develop a skin cancer than any other form of cancer and approximately two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer before the age of 70.

 

T-rays and OCT will help surgeons determine the margins of tumours before or during surgery and to assess the depth of burns, translating data into clear on-screen images. In future, they will complement existing technologies like X-ray and MRI adding to the arsenal of techniques doctors can use to diagnose and treat disease. Terahertz technology has been in use since the 1990s but has only recently begun to be developed for use in medical applications. For example, an intra-operative T-ray probe that A/Prof Wallace helped develop is being trialled at Guys Hospital in London. Terahertz imaging is also being adapted in airport security systems, A/Professor Wallace said.

 

After graduating from University College London, A/Professor Wallace completed his PhD at London's Royal Marsden Hospital, a specialist cancer hospital. He is leading this ARC project in collaboration with Dr Peter Siegel, a scientist working at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, who has long had a strong interest in the medical opportunities of T-rays. "Australia will benefit from these new medical diagnostic techniques," Associate Professor Wallace said. "This multidisciplinary international research has additional wide-ranging benefits in biology, pharmaceutical science and national security."

Media references

 

Associate Professor Vincent Wallace (+61 . . .

Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs) (+61. . .

Big bang technology adapted for cancers and burns | University News : University News : The University of Western Australia

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