Blood vessels in tumors play an essential role in tumor development, so knowing their characteristics is important for understanding tumor growth. In addition to classic imaging techniques such as CT and MRI, optical imaging techniques, which utilize tissue optics principles, are also used for better imaging and study of the tumor vasculature. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) method is designed for simultaneous spatial and spectral imaging and enables the capture of the spectrum of reflected or transmitted light at each point of the image. On the other hand, Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging (LSCI) on the other hand, is used to assess blood flow in tissues by imaging the temporal or spatial dynamics of laser interference patterns or speckles on tissues. Both methods also provide information on the vascularity of the tissue.
In the assignment, I described both imaging systems and the fundamental interactions between light and tissue for a better understanding. I also explained the composition of the skin and how tumor growth affects its vasculature. In the following sections of the thesis, I studied the vasculature of tumors located in the skin of mice.
The thesis also covers the images captured using both techniques and the manual and semi-automatic segmentation process. Based on the image and segmentation of the vessels, which I prepared, I observed the temporal development of the blood vessels after tumor cell insertion, and compared two different tumor models.
From the processed images, I observed the development of blood vessels over the course of two weeks, where I could see a more aggressive development of vessels upon tumor implantation and then the growth slowing down. When comparing two different tumor models, I noticed differences in vasculature caused by different tumor cells.
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