Study: Flow makes tumours dangerous

Physicians have been feeling for suspicious lesions under the skin since time immemorial. Scientists at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the University of Leipzig have now proven that this ancient examination technique is a pioneering diagnostic method, thanks to a collaboration between clinical diagnostic radiology and basic biophysical research. They discovered that the consistency of a tumour can have a decisive influence on the further course of cancer. They have just published their new findings in the renowned scientific journal „Advanced Science“.

A novel imaging technique, tomoelastography, was first developed at Charité in the Experimental Radiology team led by Prof Dr Ingolf Sack. This allows the mechanical properties of tumours and surrounding tissue to be mapped using MRI. The values of the altered stiffness and flow properties of cancerous tumours obtained from many patients were then examined micromechanically by biophysicists led by Prof. Dr Josef Käs at the University of Leipzig. Käs and his colleagues compared the Charitédata with the flow properties of individual cells and explanted tumour samples provided by Leipzig University Hospital. „This revealed astonishingly consistent patterns of change in the mechanical material properties of tumours with increasing aggressiveness," says Käs.

Frank Sauer, first author of the study and a member of Käs‘ team, explains that these mechanical patterns are more complicated than the simple distinction between stiff and soft. Beyond this tactile finding, tomoelastography offers the possibility of pixel-precise graduation of the change from solid body properties to fluid material behaviour.

If cells swap places in the tissue, as in a flowing body of water, this leads to increased fluidity of the entire tumour,

Käs and his team have shown in the past that these same „cell flows“ exist in cancerous tumours, even if the tumour as a whole is visible as a stiff lump. Sack's team at the Charité can now measure these fundamental relationships in patients for the first time and use them for diagnostics. Frank Sauer explains that the assessment of the fluidity, hardness and texture of a tumour node using tomoelastography could enable more accurate cancer diagnoses and thus help patients with tailored treatment options. The study is now to be validated in further clinical pilot studies and made usable for radiological diagnostics.

Article from "Universitätsklinikum Leipzig" from 10 August 2023