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3D Microscope Lenses Enhance Cancer Images
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3D Microscope Lenses
Scientists from the University of Leeds have worked to perfect a technique that is able to provide 3D hi-resolution, colored images that highlight cancer tissue. A report on the research was published in the American Journal of Pathology. With the new technology, pathologists will be able to view the tissue from myriad angles and views; this is a boon to cancer treatments as it will help researchers better develop treatment plans for various types of cancers.
While this isn’t the first time that digital microscopy has been utilized in the medical field, this is the first time the technology has transmitted 3D images; past microscopy utilized 2D views of cancerous tissues. The ability to view the cancerous tissue and blood vessels under 3D microscopes provides doctors the ability to view branch networks of tubes, something not possible with the two-dimensional microscopes.
One of the lead authors in the published study wrote, “the use of 3D imaging technology to study disease has been limited because of low resolution, and the time and difficulty associated with acquiring large numbers of images with a microscope.” In addition to the 3D microscope a digital scanner has been developed to enhance the functions of the microscope. With the scanner, researchers can see not only 3D images of the tissue samples, but can view them in color and manipulate them on a computer screen.
Scientists explain that with the 2D technology they can view a blood vessel (a branching network of tubes) and can see an ellipse, which offers them no information about the connectivity between the networks. Having and understanding and being able to view the network of blood vessels is crucial to cancer specialists as they formulate treatment plans. With the new 3D technology, a thin slice of tissue is used and this slice is further dissected using a microtome machine. Once the specimens are sliced, they can then be stacked onto glass slides, placed in the scanner and the 3D images can then be generated. With this technology, researchers believe they will be able to spot small tumors that might have otherwise been missed using traditional methods.