Microbubbles to Light the Way to Sentinel Lymph Nodes of Breast Cancer Patients (IMAGE)
Caption
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego are developing nonsurgical methods for identifying critical lymph nodes to help doctors determine courses of treatment for breast cancer patients. The "sentinel lymph node" is routinely biopsied or removed and dissected to determine the likelihood that the cancer has spread beyond the breast. Dr. Andrew Goodwin, a post doctoral fellow in the Department of Nanoengineering in the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering recently received a Breast Cancer Postdoctoral Fellowship Award from the US Department of Defense to use novel microbubbles to mark and interrogate the sentinel lymph node by means of a simple ultrasound scan. The three circles are microscopy images of a polymer-dye-loaded microbubble. Left image: a bright field image of the microbubble showing the gas core. Center image: a green fluorescence image showing the dye-loaded polymer. Right image: a red fluorescence image showing the capture of free Rhodamine B, a fluorescent dye.
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UC San Diego
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