The Canadian Cancer Society recommends that all women do
monthly breast self-examinations from age 20 onwards
in order to identify tumours as early as possible. Researchers
in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Université
de Montréal are currently working to perfect a medical
imagery technique that imitates palpation with better precision.
Elastography, a sort of "computer-assisted palpation,"
may also prove useful in detecting prostate cancer.
"Palpation is one of the oldest methods of clinical
investigation," explains Michel Bertrand, a Professor
in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and the Department
of Electrical Engineering at the École Polytechnique.
It is a very simple way to measure the shape, size, rigidity
and mobility of tissue in order to recognize the presence
of abnormal masses. Elastography can see where the soft
or hard regions of tissue are localized and quantify their
rigidity with greater accuracy than the manual method."
The technique consists of measuring the range of distortion
that results from applying force to the tissue. This distortion
is then represented as pictures called elastograms. "A
hundred patients have participated in tests conducted by
some of our colleagues at George Washington University,
and the results were encouraging enough to start a series
of clinical trials this spring in the United States."
Trials will also be conducted at the CHUM, but not before 2004.
In the case of prostate cancer, physicians use rectal digital
exams to do screening. According to the Canadian Cancer
Encyclopedia, all men aged 50 and over should undergo
this exam as part of their usual medical checkups. Here
again, elastography can be of great help.
Professor Bertrand is one of the North American pioneers
of this emerging technology, as he started to work on elastography
in the 1980s. Since 1994, his work has been financed by
the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National
Institutes of Health (NIH). In 1999, they again funded his
laboratory for a five year period for more than one million
US dollars. In 2002, a grant from the Canada Foundation
for Innovation will help him acquire state-of-the-art equipment
capable of exploring new avenues of research in neurosurgery
and cardiology. "When a surgeon performs a brain operation,
he must remove as much pathological tissue as possible without
affecting the organ. The elastogram can be used to determine
the position and infiltration of the tumour relative to
reference points, which helps ensure a better surgical outcome,"
explains Prof. Bertrand. Other applications are being considered
in cardiology.
Researcher: Michel
Bertrand
Telephone: (514) 340-4711, ext. 4364
Funding: National Institutes of Health (USA), Natural Science
and Engineering Research Council, Canada Foundation for
Innovation
