Operating in the blind
Surprisingly, polarimetric measurements also reveal differences between healthy and abnormal cells. This is probably due to the fact that the proliferating cells of a tumor crowd closely together – losing the optical properties of the tissue surrounding them. "We know that the polarisation of light is affected by the higher vascularisation and larger cell density of tumours,” Demory says. “What we do not yet know is how exactly the tissue structures shape the polarisation signal.”
At a symposium, Demory spoke with Raphael Sznitman, director of the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research. Sznitman is an expert in machine learning and artificial intelligence. The two realized they could start a promising project by combining their expertise.
This is how BrainPol came into being, an interdisciplinary research project largely funded by the National Center of Competence in Research PlanetS. The project aims to master a medical challenge that has so far remained unsolved: the clear detection of early forms of glioma, a malignant and fast advancing form of brain tumor.
The greatest prospects for successful treatment result when the glioma can be detected early and cut out of the brain before it has spread metastases. "The problem is that the human eye cannot detect the early forms of glioma," Sznitman says. "Neurosurgeons have to operate in the blind, so to speak," Demory adds.