TexRAD肿瘤分析技术有助肠癌患者个性化医疗

  每年在英国有超过1.6万人因肠道癌而死亡，肠癌是继肺癌之后排名第二的引发人类死亡的常见癌症。近日，来自苏赛克斯大学的科研人员开发了一种名为TexRAD的新型成像技术，其可以分析肿瘤组织的结构，为肠癌患者的早期诊断提供有效的帮助。
  研究者Balaji Ganeshan表示，未来TexRAD技术可以评估早期肠癌患者的生存期，并且帮助区分预后良好和预后较差的患者人群。通过运用该技术对肿瘤结构的微小异常进行成像，研究人员就可以为患者提供第一时间的治疗，从而有效改善患者的生存。
  由于TexRAD技术可以为MRI及CT扫描技术提供额外的分析技术，因此其从患者角度来讲是非侵入型的，而且也可以为医疗服务提供者带来潜在的效益。研究者进行了两项分离的研究，对155名肠癌患者的肿瘤组织进行了分析，第一项研究中，研究人员分析了基准的PET-CT扫描技术（通常用于疗法前），随后对患者进行平均三年的跟踪调查分析，结果显示，初期扫描中对肿瘤组织结构的分析可以帮助精确预测患者的生存。
  随后在科尔切斯特综合医院中研究人员观察了患者疗法前MR扫描和治疗6周后的MR扫描结构，结果显示，患者机体的肿瘤组织具有较低的异质性，化疗和放疗结束后6周患者机体的肿瘤组织的结构参数更易于延长患者的生存期。对肿瘤结构的分析或可以提供有用的成像生物标志物，进而可以帮助揭示肿瘤组织对化疗和放疗的反应。
  Andrea Laghi教授表示，新型准确的成像生物标志物的鉴别，比如对癌症疗法反应的TexRAD分析或许对于精细管理肠癌患者的治疗策略非常关键，也为进行更好的靶向疗法提供了一定的思路。最后研究者指出，新型TexRAD分析技术的使用或可为肠癌患者提供更为快速合适的治疗手段，以有效改善患者的生活质量及生存期。（转化医学网360zhyx.com）
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A novel medical-imaging technology, TexRAD, which analyses the texture of tumors, has been shown in trials to enable early diagnosis of those bowel-cancer patients not responding to the standard cancer therapy better than other available tumor markers.
Furthermore, the TexRAD markers showed the ability to assess at an early stage the likelihood of survival, distinguishing patients who will have a good prognosis from those having poor prognosis.
Dr Balaji Ganeshan, one of the Sussex academics whose research led to the development of the technology, said: "By using TexRAD to scan for subtle anomalies in a tumor's texture, researchers have been able to spot more quickly when treatments are -- or are not -- working and adjust treatment accordingly.
"And because TexRAD simply provides an additional layer of software analysis of the MRI and CT scans that already exist as part of routine clinical practice, it is non-invasive from the patient's point of view and potentially cost-effective to the healthcare provider."
The technology is being evaluated in a number of research institutions and university hospitals around the world.
Across two separate UK studies, researchers analysed the tumors of 155 bowel-cancer patients.
In a study at University College London Hospitals, researchers analysed baseline PET-CT scans -- ie those taken before treatment -- and then followed up with the patients for an average of three years later. They found that analysing the texture of the tumors in the initial scans enabled them to accurately predict patient survival.