LANL receives a medical imaging grant from DOD Breast Cancer Research Program

Laboratory scientist Lianjie Huang of the Geophysics group and medical collaborators Francesco Simonetti of Imperial College London, Donald Ingber of Harvard Medical School and Michael Williamson of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine recently were awarded a $7.6M breast-cancer-imaging grant from the Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) of the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. Huang is the principal investigator of this four-year Multi-Team Award project and Ingber and Williamson are partnering PIs. The BCRP Multi-Team Award mechanism is a new award — in place since fiscal year 2009 — and LANL’s project is the only one to have received funding so far.

The Multi-Team Award supports the creation of a collaborative research project among three teams, each led by a PI with a history of creativity and innovation, to focus on a critical area of breast cancer. The goal of the LANL-led project is to develop a novel, safe, and cost-effective breast imaging technique to vastly enhance breast cancer screening and diagnostic imaging. The Laboratory will develop its high-resolution ultrasound tomography algorithms and construct two 3D ultrasound tomography scanners: one for animal studies at Harvard and the other for patient studies at UNM. Both Harvard and UNM will provide data to LANL for ultrasound tomography imaging. This project will integrate the innovative ultrasound tomography technology with recent discoveries in the field of cell and tissue biomechanics to improve sensitivity and specificity of breast cancer imaging. And there is an urgent need to improve this sensitivity and specificity, that is, to increase the true positive rate and true negative rate.

Since the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released its new recommendations in 2009, breast cancer screening has become a hotly debated topic. The Task Force recommends against routine screening mammography in women aged 40 to 49 years, and recommends biennial screening mammography for women aged 50 to 74 years. However, the American Cancer Society recommends yearly mammograms starting at age 40. As indicated in the National Cancer Institute (NCI) statement, the Task Force’s new report reflects the fact that more questions need to be answered regarding the type and frequency of cancer screening. Transformational imaging technologies, such as the one investigated by Huang and collaborators, are needed to boost the effectiveness of current breast cancer screening modalities, particularly for early cancer detection.

The multi-team approach to breast cancer research is expected to transform the research process through the integration of basic and clinical disciplines, substantive cross-disciplinary training among the scientists on the teams, and integral participation of consumer advocates. The new Multi-Team Award will create an environment that fosters and supports innovation and creativity, with consistent, intensive interaction across teams in a way that engages all members of the teams in all aspects of the research project. LANL's capability for this project builds on past research supported from Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) and national security work in geophysics.