Most women with breast cancer undergo a lumpectomy to remove the tumor and surrounding healthy tissue. After surgery, the tissue is examined by a pathologist to check for signs of cancer at the margins, but about 20% of patients need a second surgery to remove more tissue.
An MIT spinout, Lumicell, has developed a handheld device paired with an optical imaging agent that lets surgeons see real-time images of the tissue during surgery. This allows them to detect residual cancer cells and remove additional tissue if necessary, potentially reducing the need for follow-up surgeries.
During clinical trials, the technology significantly reduced the need for second surgeries. It also revealed tissue suspected to contain cancer cells that the standard of care lumpectomy may have otherwise missed.
W. David Lee ’69, SM ’70 had spent 25 years running a successful technology consulting group, his days filled with solving complex problems for clients, always keeping an eye on the horizon for the next significant innovation. But when his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, everything changed.
Her battle with the disease was long and painful, a relentless journey of treatments and setbacks. Watching her fight daily, David felt a sense of helplessness at odds with his otherwise confident, problem-solving nature. But it also sparked something in him—an idea that maybe, just maybe, his technology skills could make a difference in the fight against cancer.
At the time, he was neighbors with Tyler Jacks, a brilliant scientist and the founding director of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. One evening, over coffee, Jacks invited David to a series of meetings at the Koch Institute. It was a chance to meet some of the most innovative minds in cancer research—Robert Langer, a professor of chemical engineering; Moungi Bawendi, a pioneer in nanotechnology; and Ralph Weissleder, a professor at Harvard Medical School.
These meetings quickly turned into weekly Friday afternoon sessions, during which the group would come together, each bringing their unique expertise to the table.
One of David’s first contributions was an idea from his work with charge-coupled device (CCD) cameras, technology he’d used in his consulting career. At the time, CCD pixels were about 2 or 3 microns in size and spaced similarly.
Lee envisioned a simple but powerful way to improve imaging in living organisms. The concept was to stabilize a camera on the surface of a tissue so it could move with the animal’s breathing, aligning the pixels with the cells without the need for complicated magnification.
Through those meetings, the team started to explore the effectiveness of combining Lee’s imaging approach with engineered proteins that would light up where the immune system meets the edge of tumors for use during surgery.
MIT professor Linda Griffith was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010.
Griffith said, “Going through that personal experience, I understood the impact that we could have. I had a very unusual situation and a bad kind of tumor. The whole thing was nerve-wracking, but one of the most nerve-wracking times was waiting to find out if my tumor margins were clear after surgery. As a patient, I experienced that uncertainty and dread, so I became hugely sensitized to our mission.”
Lumicell’s approach involves administering an optical imaging agent to patients via IV two to six hours before surgery. During surgery, surgeons use a handheld device to scan the breast cavity, with the system’s cancer detection software highlighting areas that may contain residual cancer.
This allows surgeons to remove any remaining cancerous tissue, adding less than 7 minutes to the surgery. Unlike traditional pathology, which only examines the tissue removed, Lumicell’s technology scans the entire cavity, detecting cancer that might otherwise be missed, potentially preventing the need for follow-up surgeries, and identifying cancers that wouldn’t be found through conventional pathology.
Lumicell is currently exploring whether its imaging agent is activated in other tumor types, including prostate, sarcoma, esophageal, and gastric.