Breast Cancer Chemotherapy Monitoring with Dedicated Breast Computed Tomography
Principal Investigators: Carl D'Orsi, MD
Ioannis Sechopoulos, PhD
The goal of the proposal is to use a dedicated breast CT system to closely monitor the changes in size and blood flow of breast tumors in patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy. For this, a prototype dedicated breast CT system, to be installed in June in the Breast Imaging Center, will be used. This system will be only the second prototype clinical system of its kind in the world. Its isotropic high resolution, high contrast, low dose capabilities bring about a wide variety of new approaches to breast cancer detection and treatment that will be investigated here at Emory.
The ultimate aim of this work, for which this grant is just an initial first step, is to be able to adjust the chemotherapy treatment according to imaging-based monitoring of tumor response. Today most patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy are treated with a certain pre-determined number of treatment cycles, each separated by a fixed amount of time, with varying results due to each individual tumor’s response to the chemotherapeutic drugs. Breast CT monitoring could result in a personalized therapy regimen, in which non-responders are identified in a short period of time so that other treatment options are sought. Further, treatment can be terminated early for complete responders, for whom the additional cycles do not provide any additional benefits.
Stereo Digital mammography
Carl D'Orsi, M.D.
Can stereo mammography reduce recall from screening mammography while maintaining sensitivity?
Significance: May be able to dramatically reduce recalls without sacrificing cancer detection
Low Dose Angiogenesis Imaging using Conventional Agents and Nanoparticles for Early Breast Cancer Detection
PI: Sankararaman Suryanarayanan, Ph.D. , M.B.A. , Assistant Professor
Co-Investigators: Andrew Karellas, Ph.D, Srinivasan Vedantham, Ph.D, Ioannis Sechopoulos, M.S. , Carl J. D'Orsi, M.D. , Mostafa El-Syed, Ph.D (Ga Tech).
Significance: This research is aimed at exploring contrast agents for use in contrast-enhanced digital mammography.
An Evaluation of Stereoscopic Digital Mammography for Earlier Detection of Breast Cancer and Reduced Rate of Recall
Radiology: Carl D'Orsi, MD
The on-going study comparing stereo digital mammography to 2D digital mammography has evaluated 1,000 women to-date. The results are showing that there has been a 38% decrease in false positive detection of lesions and a 14% increase in true positive detections of lesions with stereo mammography.