Needle-compatible miniaturized optoelectronic sensor for pancreatic cancer detection

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, with a 5-year survival rate of <10%. The current approach to confirming a tissue diagnosis, endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA), requires a time-consuming, qualitative cytology analysis and may be limited because of sampling error. We designed and engineered a miniaturized optoelectronic sensor to assist in situ, real-time, and objective evaluation of human pancreatic tissues during EUS-FNA. A proof-of-concept prototype sensor, compatible with a 19-gauge hollow-needle commercially available for EUS-FNA, was constructed using microsized optoelectronic chips and microfabrication techniques to perform multisite tissue optical sensing. In our bench-top verification and pilot validation during surgery on freshly excised human pancreatic tissues (four patients), the fabricated sensors showed a comparable performance to our previous fiber-based system. The flexibility in source-detector configuration using microsized chips potentially allows for various light-based sensing techniques inside a confined channel such as a hollow needle or endoscopy.

Read full text: Needle-compatible miniaturized optoelectronic sensor for pancreatic cancer detection, By SEUNG YUP LEE, JULIA M. PAKELA, KYOUNGHWAN NA, JIAQI SHI, BARBARA J. MCKENNA, DIANE M. SIMEONE, EUISIK YOON, JAMES M. SCHEIMAN, MARY-ANN MYCEK, SCIENCE ADVANCES, 20 NOV 2020 : EABC1746