By Admin at 24 Aug 2016, 10:31 AM

Photonics is the science and application of light, and it’s used in everything from communications and information technology to defense and national security to medical imaging. This latter category is playing an exciting role in next-generation health care, including for early detection technologies and treatments that could help in the fight against cancer.

Virtually every type of cancer is easier to treat when caught in the early stages. Part of the reason cancer remains so challenging to cure is because it often isn’t detected until later stages. Imaging technologies have led to significant improvements in early detection, but many types of the most lethal cancers, such as brain, lung, ovarian and pancreatic, are still difficult to diagnose early on.

The National Photonics Initiative (NPI) has partnered with the White House’s National Cancer Moonshot Initiative, which has a goal of completing 10 years’ worth of progress in the fight against cancer in the next five years. As one of the Moonshot Initiative’s private-sector partners, NPI plans to leverage more than $3 billion in annual private investments toward this cause.

In addition, NPI presented a new white paper in which they discuss new technologies for early detection and other technological advances to help achieve the goals of the Cancer Moonshot Initiative. Their three major recommendations include:

• Expand funding for clinical studies over the next five years, using noninvasive and minimally invasive imaging technologies and companion molecular tests for early detection of cancer
  
  
• Use coordinated public and private investments to expand funding for the development of new noninvasive quantitative imaging approaches for early detection and guided cancer treatment
  
  
• Provide the resources to develop a network for an IT medical infrastructure available to U.S. health-care providers and consumers

They also highlighted the role that new technology can play in improving management at all stages of cancer, beginning with lifestyle and environmental factors. For instance, new technologies that monitor small-particle air pollution could be used in highly polluted urban settings to provide warnings about hazard levels.

Monitors could also be used to warn for other cancer-causing pollutants, such as benzene and formaldehyde, in buildings. Another example is sun-exposure monitors that could be worn on your wrist to let you know when you’ve exceeded a safe amount of sun exposure, putting you at increased risk of skin cancer. Other technological advances could lead to improvements in:

• Screening and early detection of gastrointestinal and oral cancers
• Determining the location and size of suspect tumors
• Real-time imaging to help define tumor boundaries during surgery or guide beams during radiation therapy
• Measuring tumor response to treatments for drug regimens to be chosen more effectively
• Monitoring for recurrence more effectively so that suppression protocols or drug protocols can be shifted, if necessary

Thomas Baer, Ph. D, executive director of the Stanford Photonics Research Center and chair of NPI’s Cancer Moonshot Task Force, explained that “Technology will play an absolutely essential role,” in achieving these goals. He continued in a statement:

“The good news is our country can make significant strides within the next 5 years by effectively utilizing existing technologies and leveraging new investments to stimulate development of low-cost, precise, early detection technologies, and treatment protocols … ”

Sources:
The Asco Post August 10, 2016
National Photonics Initiative White Paper June 29, 2016

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