International prize for breast cancer diagnosis technique 

A PhD student co-funded by STFC has won a prestigious award for demonstrating that a technique developed originally at STFC’s Central Laser Facility could take away the need for a needle biopsy in breast cancer diagnosis. Marleen Kerssens, also funded by the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has shown that SORS (spatially offset Raman spectroscopy), a method using a laser to see inside objects without making an incision, is viable for detecting if abnormalities found through mammograms are malignant or benign. Currently a needle biopsy is the only way to confirm this. Marleen received the Coblentz Society Student Award, an international prize to recognise young scientists in the area of vibrational spectroscopy, at a conference in Kansas City, USA on Sunday 30 September.

The team Marleen is working in at the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has used the SORS method to look at the molecular fingerprints of breast calcifications. The technique involves bouncing light off of the tiny grains of breast tissue and measuring the light scattered at different colours to pick up their molecular signatures which indicate if a cancer is present. This research has shown a correlation between the signature and the type of cancer present and Marleen’s work is also looking at how these calcifications form. Work by Marleen and her team at the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust could lead in the next decade, to the biopsy being replaced by a non-invasive screening with instantaneous results. The technique, however, still needs a lot of refinement.

Pavel Matousek from STFC’s Central Laser Facility based in the Research Complex at Harwell who originally developed the SORS technique was also awarded a fellowship of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy in recognition of his outstanding service to the field of spectroscopy.