Managers: Lina Bezdetnaya-Bolotine, Walter Blondel.
Members: Muriel Barberi-Heyob, Christian Daul, Marie-Ange D'Hallewin, François Guillemin, Henri Pierre Lassalle (post-doc), Frédéric Marchal, Alain Noel, Sophie Marchal, Didier Wolf.
Phd Students: Mohamad Safa Al Khawaja, Denise Bechet, Achraf Ben Hamadou, Saoussen Berrahmoune, Gilberto Diaz-Ayil, Julie Garrier, Nina Kalyagina, Dzmitry Kachatkou, Honghui Liu, Azad Mohamad, Vincent Morosini, Emilie Pic, Noémie Thomas, Nédia Nouri
This project aims to develop and optimise the new therapeutic and diagnostic methods and techniques applied in cancer treatment using ionising and non-ionizing irradiations. The project consists of two parts :
• In vivo diagnostic using spectro-imaging methods
• Therapeutic approach using two complementary approaches : radiotherapy and photo chemotherapy
These two axes overlap in many aspects in terms of concepts, techniques and methodological approaches
The general objective of this axe is to conceive, develop, characterize and evaluate the new diagnostic modalities by atraumatic spectroscopic (“optical biopsy”) techniques for the detection, localization and identification of cells or pathological tissues (pre-cancerous and early cancerous states) by taking into consideration their photophysical properties.
Our studies concern the development and application of the concepts , methods , and tools for the characterization of biological tissues by in vivo spectro-imaging.
Our strategy consists in developing “ multi-module and multi-dimensional ” spectroscopic point-to -point (autofluorescence, elastic scattering and gap-FRAP) and imaging approaches (multi-bands fluorescence endoscopy). The final objective is the detection and characterization of pre-cancerous and early cancerous tissue lesions assessed by :
• endoscopic imaging, which requires images acquisition and processing in both the white light and in fluorescence mode and the construction of 2D and 3D panoramic images superposing both modalities
• optical point-to-point spectroscopy, which requires the multidimensional signal acquisition and processing (spectral, spatial and time dimensions), identification of optical parameters of tissues from the global surface measurements (this issue requires the development of appropriate light-tissue interactions modelling), extraction and selection of spectral characteristics resulting in an optimal diagnostic classification.
Scientific problems needed to be resolved are the following :
• instrumentation : development of specific measurements in vivo measurements systems employing the intrinsic/extrinsic fluorescence, absorption and multiple diffusion of light in tissues (fibred spectroscopy, multi-band endoscopic imaging) and considering the limits of their clinical utilisation.
• Data analysis and modelling :
• from the spectral data (characterization of optical properties, modelling of the light-tissues interactions, light scattering-diffusion, identification of discriminative parameters for diagnosis, classification),
• from spatial data (image registration and mosaicing in endoscopy in both white light and fluorescence mode, 2D/3D representation)
• development of complementary methods (spectral, spatial and temporal resolution) and their pre-clinical and clinical validations.
Link : http://www.ensem.inpl-nancy.fr/~wblondel/Biopsie-WEB/Biopsie.html
Axe : Photochemotherapy
The general objective of this direction is to apply the knowledge acquired in pre-clinicl models in order to optimise and individualize the treatment modalities in oncology, based on the interaction of ionizing and non-ionizing irradiation with biological tissues.
Our studies a re related to the optimisation and evaluation of the new applications of Photodyanamic Therapy (PDT). Three different strategic approaches are proposed with this aim. The first one consists in a study of new targeted photosensitizers (PSs) in the form of nanoparticles (liposomal formulations, dendrimers, quantum dots) aiming an increase in the selectivity of treatment while minimizing the side effects. The strategies employed here are numerous : specific tumor targeting ( vectorisation ), compartmental targeting (tumour versus vessels), rapid clearance , new ways of administration .
The second approach consists in evaluation of the new dosimetry approach with the aim to predict the therapeutic effect and to adapt it to the real-time treatment. The techniques like fluorescence spectroscopy and elastic light scattering will allow to evaluate the photobleaching of PSs along with the detection of photoproducts formation. This indirect information on the parameters that are of crucial importance in the photodynamic action are essential for the evaluation of the PDT effect on tumour as well as adjacent normal tissues.
The third approach consists in the evaluation of the role of PDT in applications others than exist nowadays. We can envisage the PDT as a predictive tool in the treatment of bladder cancers. Also, PDT could be applied to favour and accelerate the wounds cicatrisation.
The main objective here is to assess the accuracy of treatment that can be achieved in the radiotherapy especially with the Cyberknife in the presence of physiological movements related to respiration (breathing). This innovative technique, which uses the miniature accelerator in a robotized manner, allows to perform the stereo intra and extra-cranial irradiations with a submillimeter precision. The latter are guided by a real-time imaging and the dynamic follow-up of the tumor movements during irradiation.
Our studies concern :