Open AccessUltrasound-guided photoacoustic imaging for the selective detection of EGFR-expressing breast cancer and lymph node metastases
Author(s) -
Meihua Zhang,
Hoe Suk Kim,
Tiefeng Jin,
Ann Yi,
Woo Kyung Moon
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
biomedical optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.362
H-Index - 86
ISSN - 2156-7085
DOI - 10.1364/boe.7.001920
Subject(s) - breast cancer , medicine , lymph node , photoacoustic imaging in biomedicine , cancer research , cancer , breast tumor , ultrasound , primary tumor , pathology , metastasis , radiology , physics , optics
We assessed the use of ultrasound (US)-guided photoacoustic imaging (PAI) and anti-EGFR antibody-conjugated gold nanorods (anti-EGFR-GNs) to non-invasively detect EGFR-expressing primary tumor masses and regional lymph node (LN) metastases in breast tumor mice generated by injecting MCF-7 (EGFR-negative) or MDA-MB-231 (EGFR-positive) human breast cells using a preclinical Vevo 2100 LAZR Imaging system. Anti-EGFR-GNs provided a significant enhancement in the PA signal in MDA-MB-231 tumor and the axillary LN metastases relative to MCF-7 tumor and non-LN metastases. We demonstrated that US-guided PAI using anti-EGFR-GNs is highly sensitive for the selective visualization of EGFR-expressing breast primary tumors as well as LN micrometastases.