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t m c » p u l s e | j u ly 2 0 1 5 39 Ready For Occupancy Excellent Financing Available Four-Story Midrise | 2 or 3 Bedroom Floor Plans Open Saturday & Sunday, 2 p.m. - 4 p.m., or by Appointment For Sale From the $300s Annie Raburn REALTOR-ASSOCIATE® Circle of Excellence, Hall of Fame 713.826.7569 araburn@marthaturner.com Grace Medellin REALTOR-ASSOCIATE® Circle of Excellence 713.385.7687 gmedellin@marthaturner.com For more information contact: MarthaTurner.com ARE YOU DEPRESSED AND BETWEEN THE AGES OF 18 AND 65? Are you currently on an antidepressant without receiving the improvement you need? If so, you may be eligible to participate in a research study of a rapidly acting medication (Ketamine) conducted in patients with major depression at Baylor College of Medicine and The Michael E. Debakey VA Medical Center Please contact us at our confidential number or email: 713-689-9856 mood@bcm.edu Study: Microendoscope Could Eliminate Unneeded Biopsies I n a clinical study of patients in the United States and China, researchers found that a low-cost, portable, bat- tery-powered microendoscope devel- oped by Rice University bioengineers could eventually eliminate the need for costly biopsies for many patients undergoing standard endoscopic screening for esophageal cancer. The research is available online in the journal Gastroenterology and was co-authored by researchers from nearly a dozen institutions that include Rice, Baylor College of Medicine, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the National Cancer Institute. The clinical study, which involved 147 U.S. and Chinese patients undergo- ing examination for potentially malig- nant squamous cell tumors, explored whether Rice's low-cost, high-resolu- tion fiber-optic imaging system could reduce the need for unnecessary biopsies when used in combination with a conventional endoscope— the worldwide standard of care for esophageal cancer diagnoses. The study involved patients from two U.S. and two Chinese hospitals: Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, the Cancer Institute and Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing and First University Hospital in Jilin, China. In the study, all 147 patients with suspect lesions were examined with both a traditional endoscope and Rice's microendoscope. Biopsies were obtained based upon the results of the traditional endoscopic exam. A pathology exam revealed that more than half of those receiving biopsies—58 percent—did not have high-grade precancer or cancer. The researchers found that the microendo- scopic exam could have spared unnec- essary biopsies for about 90 percent of the patients with benign lesions. "For patients, biopsies are stress- ful and sometimes painful," said lead researcher Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Ph.D., Rice's Stanley C. Moore Professor of Bioengineering, professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of Rice 360°: Institute for Global Health Technologies. "In addi- tion, in low-resource settings, pathol- ogy costs frequently exceed endoscopy costs. So the microendoscope could both improve patient outcomes and provide a significant cost-saving advantage if used in conjunction with a traditional endoscope." When examined under a micro- scope, cancerous and precancerous cells typically appear different from healthy cells. The study of cellular structures is known as histol- ogy, and a histological analysis is typically required for an accurate diagnosis of both the type and stage of a cancerous tumor. To determine whether a biopsy is needed for a histological exam, health professionals often use endoscopes, small cameras mounted on flexible tubes that can be inserted into the body to visually examine an organ or tissue without surgery. Rice's high- resolution microendoscope uses a one-millimeter-wide fiber-optic cable that is attached to the standard endo- scope. The cable transmits images to a high-powered fluorescence microscope, and the endoscopist uses a tablet com- puter to view the microscope's output. The microendoscope provides images with similar resolution to traditional histology and allows endoscopists to see individual cells and cell nuclei in lesions suspected of being cancerous. By providing real-time histological data to endoscopists, Rice's microendo- scope can help rule out malignancy in cases that would otherwise require a biopsy. — Jade Boyd, Rice University (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

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