Polish scientists have a great idea for detecting skin cancer. This is the T-Skin project

Polish scientists have something to be proud of. Thanks to their knowledge and experience, a device for non-invasive and instant detection of neoplastic lesions on the skin may soon be created.

The T-SKIN project , because of it, received funding in the ninth edition of the LIDER program organized by the National Center for Research and Development. A team of dr inż. Works on the device. Agnieszka Siemion from the Faculty of Physics, Warsaw University of Technology.

What is T-Skin?

The device will be based on optical modules containing diffraction structures. The phenomenon of diffraction is that the wave, when encountering an obstacle, bends, and thus - the direction of its propagation changes.

Using this feature, Polish scientists want to create an illumination and skin imaging system (in this way it will be possible to identify tissues with neoplastic changes) and to focus radiation in a spot with high power density. The radiation will be reflected at different angles on the matrix or other type of detector, thanks to which the device will also be useful in testing deeper layers of the skin. Such a study will be completely safe.

In the project we use terahertz radiation - explains Dr. Siemion. - Its advantage is that it enables the diversification of healthy and cancerous tissue. In addition, unlike the well-known and widely used X-ray (X-ray), THz radiation is not harmful to humans, because it is not ionizing.

Illumination of neoplastic lesions with terahertz radiation gives an image corresponding to that obtained from histopathological examination. This means that the result would not have to wait for weeks, it would only be available immediately. What's more, one could study the skin in a non-invasive way, and to precisely determine the size of the neoplastic lesion to cut it out without removing too much healthy tissue. For now, it sounds wonderful.

However, it will not be so easy.

Dr Siemion admits that building such a device involves a whole list of challenges and problems to be solved.

In general, terahertz have a very large frequency range compared to the range corresponding to light. In the project we focus on 2-3 selected frequencies and for each of them you need to choose a set consisting of a source and a detector. Unfortunately, these are not cheap solutions yet, and it is up to them to adapt our optical modules so that the whole device works optimally. - explains Dr. Siemion.

In addition, there is an additional problem associated with testing deeper layers of the skin. Terahertz radiation is very effectively blocked by water, which is not lacking in our body. Researchers from the Warsaw University of Technology say that you can deal with it by providing enough energy for the lamps themselves.

So many theories, what about the practice?

T-Skin, like any device designed for medical use, must be tested rigorously. For now, the plans of the team from the Polytechnic are to check ready optical modules with both equipment available at the Faculty of Physics, as well as with a commercial source and detector.

Some measurements will also take place at the Military University of Technology. Tests at two universities will allow for the collection of more data, which determines both the most accurate check of the effectiveness of modules and the development of an algorithm for their design.

The tests themselves will take place on the so-called phantom of the skin, or artificial tissue imitating cancerous changes. The tests on real tissues also remain open. Unless, of course, Polish scientists manage to establish cooperation with hospitals or individual doctors.

If everything went according to plan ...

T-Skin, in the target form, would be a compact device, capable of instant diagnosis of changes on the skin of patients. Polish hospitals with such equipment could offer much more accurate, faster, safer and - this is also an important issue - cheaper tests as part of prevention. If we counted cancer and cutaneous melanoma as a single disease, it would be in second place after breast cancer in women and third place after lung cancer and prostate cancer in men. I do not need to convince anybody that rapid detection of skin cancers would be very useful for our doctors.

We will inform you about further progress in this project.



Polish scientists have a great idea for detecting skin cancer. This is the T-Skin project

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