Automated Detection of Cancer in Prostatectomy Tissues by Elastic Modulus Measurements

• Grieta Danosa
• Veronica Gonzalez
• Andrea Ohk
• Vish Vijayakumar

Advisors: Anthony E. Felder, PhD, Miiri Kotche, PhD

Sponsors: Andre Kajdacsy-Balla, PhD, Virgilia Macias, PhD, Cristian Luciano, PhD

Prostate cancer affects about 1.3 million men annually worldwide and is an area of active research. There is an unmet need for pathologists who receive prostatectomy samples from the operating room to accurately detect cancerous tissues within the sample while the cells are still viable for cell culturing and RNA sequencing. Currently, pathologists rely solely on manual palpation and visualization of the tissue to detect these tumors. Unfortunately, this approach has low sensitivity, detecting tumorous tissues less than 50% of the time. Previous research studies have designed palpation devices to diagnose cancer, but they do not assess tissue viability for xenografts nor localize the location of cancer with sufficient resolution to meet the need of pathologists. Here we propose a device to measure the elastic modulus and the relative differences in elasticity at different points of a prostate tissue slice with 1 cm resolution in 30 minutes to ensure the tissue remains fresh. The device is composed of a linear actuator with a force-sensitive resistor, which is connected to an Arduino Uno. By displaying the relative differences in elasticity within the tissue sample, the pathologist would be better informed in determining the location of tumors and appropriate harvesting regions for research in patient-derived xenografts. We have verified the accuracy and reliability of our device on different pieces of rubber with known hardness with p < 0.005. Increased automation and accuracy in localizing the presence of the tumors will lead to better efficiency in obtaining viable tissue for research purposes to develop treatment plans for patients in the clinic.

See supporting documentation in the team’s Box drive.