DOST Imaging May Predict Breast Cancer Response to Chemotherapy

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

According to a new study published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, researchers at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, have found that Diffuse Optical Spectroscopic Tomographic imaging (DOST) may be effective for predicting which patients with breast cancer will have achieve the best response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy prior to surgery.

DOST imaging is a technique that measures the hemoglobin and oxygen saturation levels of tumor tissue. Higher levels indicate the presence of blood vessels that the tumor requires to grow.

The study suggests that patients with higher levels of hemoglobin and oxygen saturation are more likely to respond well to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. In addition, the researchers say that the utilization of DOST imaging during novel neoadjuvant chemotherapy studies could decrease the number of patients required for the study, as well as the duration in which they need to be followed.

The researchers hope to next design a portable and compact DOST imaging technique to measure changes in the breast before and during treatment with chemotherapy. By integrating this system into clinical oncology practice, researchers could potentially increase patient participation in future studies.