Dynamic Optical Tomographic Breast Imaging System (DOTBIS) for Predicting Cancer Therapy Outcome

Unmet Medical Need: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), given for 6 months prior to surgery, is widely applied as standard treatment for patients with newly diagnosed operable invasive breast cancer. The goal of NAC is a pathologic complete response (pCR) at surgery, as this response strongly correlates with survival. However, pCR is achieved in only 15-40% of women.

Envisioned Healthcare Product: . Using DOTBIS, physicians will be able to determine who will not respond to NACT soon after treatment initiation. Overtreatment with ineffective drugs that can cause considerable side effects can be avoided, and alternative treatment regimens can be pursued, significantly reducing cost for healthcare providers. There is currently no method that can predict treatment outcome.

Stage of Development: Clinical Trial

Collaborative Research Team: Andreas Hielscher, PhD and Dawn Hershman, MD, MS

Columbia-Coulter Funding Cycle: 2018-2019