The Daily Scan

Announcing Pathology Visions 2009 - now with posters!

 

Register Today!

Pathology Visions Conference
September 13-15, 2009

Marriott Hotel and Marina
San Diego, CA

Pathology Visions brings together members of the healthcare and scientific community to discuss real-world, practical applications and learn about the latest advances in digital pathology for research, clinical, education, IT, and veterinary pathology applications.

2009 Registration is now open!  Pathology Visions is currently offering the 2008 rate of $399 to attendees who register before January 31.

NEW IN 2009 – POSTER SESSIONS!  Click here to submit a poster or abstract for consideration.

Contact Information
T: 760.539.1193
E: info@pathologyvisions.com
www.pathologyvisions.com

Research: Exercise May Diminish Cancer Risk

From eFluxMedia: Research: Exercise May Diminish Cancer Risk:

Regular exercise can help sufferers in the fight against cancer, according to new research.

Researchers believe that exercise equivalent to a 30-minute walk five times a week can help prevent cancer, slow the disease’s progress, enhance recovery and prevent its recurrence.   

Exercise cuts the levels of insulin, a hormone that causes most of the body's cells to take up glucose from the blood and triggers faster cell growth, boosting women’s risk of breast cancer and recurrence of the disease.

This doesn't seems like a breakthrough revelation - exercize is good for all of us, anyway - but it is another reason to take a break from watching football and go for a bike ride :)

 

World's Highest Resolution Display Deployed by Texas Advanced Computing Center

The world's highest resolution tiled display has been deployed by the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin.

The system features 75 high-resolution Dell 30" displays, arranged in 15 columns of five displays each. Each display has a resolution of 2560x1600 for a combined total of 307 million pixels. With more than 36 gigabytes of graphics memory, 108 gigabytes of system memory, and 100 processing cores, Stallion enables datasets to be processed on a massive scale.

Very cool...  it will be perfect for viewing digital slides :)

Aperio Receives Second FDA Clearance for Diagnosis of Digital Breast Cancer Slides

I promise the Daily Scan won't turn into a mouthpiece for Aperio press releases, but this one is really important: Aperio Receives Second FDA Clearance for Diagnosis of Digital Breast Cancer Slides. 

The reason this is so important is that this is Aperio's second FDA clearance for a diagnosis made from a computer monitor.  We are the first (and so far, the only) company which has such clearances, which means we have demonstrated that what pathologists see on a computer monitor is equivalent to what you see with a microscope, for specific applications (in this case, diagnosis of PR-stained breast cancer slides).  The clearance covers Aperio's entire digital pathology system, comprising the ScanScope scanner, Spectrum digital slide management system, and ImageScope viewing software.

This clearance is important for Aperio, because it gives customers confidence that they can use digital pathology for diagnosis, but it is also important for the digital pathology industry as a whole.  Pathologists worldwide are adopting digital pathology and making their own professional judgement as to whether this technology allows them to see what they need to see in order to make diagnoses.  Obtaining FDA clearance on this capability shows that studies have been performed to validate their judgement, and will help accelerate the adoption of digital pathology technology.

Clue To Stopping Breast-cancer Metastasis Discovered

ScienceDaily reports Clue To Stopping Breast-cancer Metastasis Discovered:

If scientists knew exactly what a breast cancer cell needs to spread, then they could stop the most deadly part of the disease: metastasis. New research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine takes a step in that direction.

Carol Otey, Ph.D. and UNC colleagues reduced the ability of breast cancer cells to migrate by knocking down the expression of a protein called palladin.  They also found higher levels of palladin in four invasive breast cancer cell lines compared to four non-invasive cell lines.

Cool...  imagine if there was a drug one could take that reduced or eliminated metastasis?  That would be incredibly powerful.

Breaking Cancer's Gene Code

From USNews & World Report: Breaking Cancer's Gene Code; Understanding the genetic underpinnings of cancer is a giant step toward personalized medicine.

Imagine cancer, 2040. A 45-year-old woman who has never smoked develops lung cancer, which today kills more people than any other kind. (By then, of course, cigarettes will have gone the way of the buggy whip, and lung cancer rates will be cut in half.) She undergoes outpatient surgery, and her doctors quickly scrutinize the tumor's genes and feed the data, along with other information from her electronic medical record, into a desktop computer that crunches out a treatment plan all but certain to work. At subsequent checkups, her blood is tested for the earliest hint of a tumor recurrence—though were such news to come, it would bring no doom and gloom. Her doctor would simply analyze a few of the cells that even the tiniest tumors shed and prescribe a suitable next round of therapy. Throughout, her busy life is barely interrupted, and her hair stays wonderfully intact.

Sound like pure fantasy? It isn't.

A nice overview of the progress made at the genetic level to understand the origins of cancer, which may ultimately lead to new ways of detecting, treating, and even preventing tumors.  Cool.

New MRI screening technique differentiates malignant breast tumors

HealthImaging reports New MRI screening technique differentiates malignant breast tumors.

Latest results from researchers at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in Portland demonstrate that “shutter-speed” computer analysis can distinguish malignant from benign tumors 100 percent of the time in breast cancer screening, a method likely to reduce or eliminate unnecessary biopsies. Their findings are published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Wow, 100% of the time!  That is amazing!

the blog phenomenon hits pathology :)

From Brian Moore, Clinical Assistant Professor in Pathology and Neurology at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, comes this article, published in Advanced Anatomic Pathology: The Blog Phenomenon Hits Pathology The Blog Phenomenon hits Pathology.

Blogging has become a widespread phenomenon in cyberspace, operating within a network of writers and readers that has come to be known as the ‘‘blogosphere.’’  Pathology has not been immune to the allure of the blog, and has served as a creative and interactive outlet for pathologists around the world.

One of my favorite pathology blogs is published by Ole Eichhorn, Chief Technical Officer of Aperio Technologies, a digital pathology company in San Diego.  Eichhorn’s blog, The Daily Scan (blog.aperio.com), covers news and offers opinions about pathology, technology, and the interface between the two.

Very cool, a published paper about blogging; thanks Brian!

I remember in the early days of the Internet, about 1994, that Jamie Zawinsky said "we'll know the internet has arrived when articles are written about the web, instead of the web indexing articles".  We could say the same about blogging today :)

Digital Pathology vs. Digital Radiology

Bruce Friedman posted an interesting discussion of Digital Pathology vs. Digital Radiology.  This followed an earlier post he'd made noting On-Line Auctions for Radiologist Services, which prompted Ajit Alles, one of his readers, to submitted this comment:

Of course, I'm sure you realize that this is the best argument against moving to digital pathology.

I can see where pathologists might be worried, but truly no Radiologists have lost jobs or even work due to online services, instead, it has caused an explosion of opportunity that has resulted in Radiologists being among the most in-demand and highly compensated medical subspecialties. 

Online access to digital pathology will likely have a similar affect on pathology; making the use of secondary consults more frequent and increasing demand for pathologists specialized in various tissue types and preparations.  This follows an increase in the number of tests which can be performed, special stains which can be ordered, and [ultimately] diagnoses which can be made.

Going back to the comparison between Pathology and Radiology, I'm not sure I agree with all of Bruce's points but it is an interesting discussion.  One thing is sure, there is a steady trend toward digital pathology, and just as digital radiology has become ubiquitos, the same will likely occur in pathology over the next five years.

I'd be interested in your thoughts about the differences between Digital Pathology and Digital Radiology, please feel free to comment!

 

OSC, partners developing cancer microscopy, microarray database

I love this - a press release from the Ohio Supercomputing Center: OSC, partners developing cancer microscopy, microarray database:

Researchers in Columbus, Ohio, and Los Angeles are collaborating on a groundbreaking effort that, when fully implemented, will allow health care experts around the world to have comprehensive information about a patient’s tumor at their fingertips.

Led by the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and the Ohio Supercomputer Center, the Virtual Microscopy to Microarray project, or VM2M, aims to bridge the worlds of pathology, genetics and medical treatment. These data are necessary to implement “personalized medicine,” the growing approach of tailoring treatment to the individual and delivering the right dose of the right therapy to each patient. To be effective with these targeted and less toxic therapies, specialists require quick access to genetic information about the patient's tumor and the specific cancer type.

Aperio is not mentioned, but the screen shots are unmistakable:

 

Quoting from the release:

Three main components comprise VM2M: high quality digital microscopy scans of tumors, microarrays of the same tumors that detail their specific genetic code, and the new underpinning technology -- software, data storage, and network access – that enables viewing the two simultaneously.

This is the sort of thing people can do building on our technology… pretty cool…