December 26, 2018

Good Morning,

A new computerized model could replace the method of using surgical biopsies. Less invasive, more accurate imaging. I'm all for that!

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- New computer imaging method detects lung cancer based on blood vessels --*

A new computerized model for lung cancer detection could replace the old method of using surgical biopsies, a new study says.

New findings published Tuesday in the journal Radiology show how researchers used computer imaging to probe in and around a lung image on a CAT scan to distinguish a malignant and benign tumor with 80 percent accuracy. The radiologist only had 60 percent accuracy.

"The number-one reason I'm excited about these papers is that we are in truly uncharted territory," Anant Madabhushi, a researcher at Case Western Reserve University and study author, said in a news release. "We've all been trained that 'the money is in the tumor,' but what these papers demonstrate unequivocally is that there is a lot of signal outside the tumor, too."

Specifically, the method uses deep learning diagnostic computers to analyze the CAT scan of an image of blood vessels pumping into a potentially cancerous tumor on a lung.

More promising research performed earlier this year showed computer-extracted patterns of "vessel tortuosity"-- or twisted blood vessels -- that could tell between malignant and benign tumors with 85 percent accuracy.

"We're now doing something that radiologists do not typically tend to do," Madabhushi said. "Radiologists have been looking at CAT scans for 40 or 50 years, but they have never looked in these locations or found what we've found."

The computer model gives scientists the capability to take CAT scan results one step further.

"So there's the economics of it, but also the anxiety for the patient," Madabhushi said. "We don't really do a great job of lung cancer screening because we don't have better tools. This would be a far, far better tool."

*-- Virgin Galactic reaches edge of space in historic flight --*

Virgin Galactic made history Thursday by flying to the edge of Earth's atmosphere, taking its boldest step yet in space tourism.

The company's rocket-powered VSS Unity took off from its Mojave Air & Space Port early Thursday. Its SpaceShipTwo separated from the WhiteKnightTwo twin-fuselage carrier aircraft and reached a maximum altitude of 51.4 miles before returning to Earth.

NASA recognizes the 50-mile mark as the edge of space.

The test flight marked a major bounce back for Virgin Galactic, which saw pilot Michael Alsbury die and fellow pilot Peter Siebold injured four years ago when the VSS Enterprise broke apart in a failed test flight that put the entire project in jeopardy.

"Incremental flight test programs are by definition open-ended and, to a great extent, each test depends on the data from the test that precedes it," Virgin Galactic said in a report by CNN. "There is no guarantee that everything will work perfectly first time and, like all programs seeking to take bold steps, we will inevitably have times when things don't go as planned."

The flight also marked the Virgin Galactic's first mission for NASA, which took four of the space agency's experiments on Thursday's flight, in its payload.

"The anticipated addition of SpaceShipTwo to a growing list of commercial vehicles supporting suborbital research is exciting," Ryan Dibley, flight ppportunities campaign manager at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center, said in a statement before the flight.

"Inexpensive access to suborbital space greatly benefits the technology research and broader spaceflight communities."

Virgin Galactic differs from other private efforts like Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezo's Blue Origin by using a rocket-powered space plane to leave the Earth's atmosphere -- instead of vertical rockets that NASA and other space agencies used for decades.