Researchers at the University of Tübingen have managed to find a way to combine tumour data from imaging methods and technologies with high precisions. Goal of this is to better understand tumours. With this new method researchers would be able to get a full insight into the metabolic processes.

Since at STRAMMER, we are working for the biggest companies and innovative start-ups of that industry, we have a deep understanding and awareness of new technologies, just like this one.

Professor Bernd Pichler, leader of the research team, says that instead of seeing a tumour as a homogeneous unit, we should rather realise that often they are highly heterogeneous. A tumour is always build of different signaling pathways with various proteins, so doing a simple biopsy is most of the times not efficient enough. The new method aims to localize the tumour precisely, remove it completely and freeze it for a subsequent analysis.

By combining several methods, such as PEC-CT and simultaneous measurement, surgeons can have a very precise look and understanding of the tumour and therefore observe the activation of different metabolic pathways within it. Nevertheless, researchers still have not enough knowledge about the causes of tissue alterations and the consequences on the growth process of a tumour. Furthermore, the time factor during a tumour analysis plays a vital role! After being removed, the metabolic processes within a tumour change incredibly quickly.

As a result, these information about the tumour tissue are lost when it comes to traditional procedures. This new method could have a great impact on the effectiveness of saving these information. Given that all the samples are frozen during the whole procedure, they are suitable for an analysis, which enables to assign a vast number of data of the tumour. Besides simply improving the effectiveness and saving information, this new method could also be a solution for figuring out how the disease is developing.

So far, the method is just being tested on animals. However, researchers believe that this new method has great potential to be used for clinical application.

References:

• Universität Tübingen (March 6, 2018). Clearer vision of what’s inside a tumor and what’s going on in there. Available at: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180306093300.htm [Accessed April 27, 2018]