Cancer incidents still occur at a high rate. When cancer is diagnosed through endoscopy, there is a possibility of misdiagnosis because the tumor must be detected by the naked eye.
Particularly, if a polyp has a flat shape rather than a lump shape, the probability for detecting the polyp is further lowered.
In recent years, along with the development of molecular imaging technology, there have been ongoing studies to diagnose gastrointestinal cancer and to image the molecular characteristics of cancer using this technology. The first attempt was to introduce the possibility of applying molecular imaging that targets Cathepsin B to endoscopy. However, the images at that time were too simple to be applied at a clinical level.
Related studies have been carried out in various institutions. Until recently, a technique for imaging a specific tumor tissue using a peptide as a probe, an ultra-small imaging technique capable of high-speed three-dimensional endoscopic imaging and a small microscope technique have been developed. A more advanced marker material is being developed through the development of a Raman amplification probe capable of ultra-sensitive molecular imaging and an aptamer-based compact fluorescent probe.
The group of Dr. Goetz of Mainz University in Germany has developed a probe that can identify an Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) and has attempted to image the probe using a special endoscope called a confocal endomicroscope.
Although studies for enabling endoscopy using molecular imaging have been conducted thus far, there has been little study that has obtained images at a level applicable to actual endoscopes. Even in the case of a probe that is very important in molecular imaging, there is available only a technique at a level that can only confirm and verify a probe for a single target.