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K: Fachverband Kurzzeit- und angewandte Laserphysik
K 1: New Methods - Applications
K 1.2: Talk
Thursday, September 2, 2021, 11:45–12:00, H2
Identifying metastatic melanoma early: A novel approach with pump-probe microscopy — •David Grass1, Martin Fischer1,2, and Warren Warren1,2,3,4 — 1Department of Chemistry, Duke University, USA — 2Department of Physics, Duke University, USA — 3Department of Radiology, Duke University, USA — 4Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, USA
More people die from melanoma after a Stage I diagnosis (local melanoma) than after a Stage IV diagnosis (distant metastatic disease), because the tools available to clinicians do not identify which early-stage cancers will be aggressive. We pursuit an alternative approach, complementary to conventional histopathology, based on femtosecond pump-probe microscopy. The nonlinear optical interactions reveal the ultrafast electronic and vibrational dynamics of the tumor intrinsic pigment melanin, that correlate with metastatic disease. Visualization of these changes in melanin and model development are the first steps for new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers such that the patient can be treated to interrupt disease progression.