Using New Tools
to Diagnose Breast Cancer
By Paul Grondahl

David Gibson, president of X-Ray Optical Systems, with Carolyn MacDonald, center, professor of physics and director of the University's Center for X-Ray Optics, and Susanne Lee, assistant professor of physics and director of UAlbany's Metastable Materials Manufacturing Laboratory. X-Ray Optical Systems has donated $116,000 worth of custom x-ray optics in support of the research of the two physicists.

Two physicists at the University are using sophisticated, custom x-ray equipment donated by a company founded by a UAlbany professor to increase the accuracy of mammography in breast cancer detection and to analyze the molecular structure of foods believed to possess cancer-fighting properties.

“This equipment is absolutely critical to our research and allows us to develop new technology that is more risky than would usually be allowed by traditional funding sources," said Susanne Lee, assistant professor of physics and director of UAlbany’s Metastable Materials Manufacturing Laboratory

"Private research support is important, and equipment donations often have a value beyond their dollar amount because they are specific to a particular area of research,” said Carolyn MacDonald, professor of physics and director of the Center for X-Ray Optics. Her lab uses the donation from X-Ray Optical Systems in East Greenbush, N.Y., to create dramatic enhancements in contrast and resolution of mammographic imaging systems. In turn, such a breakthrough could lead to breast cancer being detected earlier and to decreases in the current level of inaccurate readings.

"There is a very high false positive rate for women right now. More accurate mammograms would reduce that and take away the emotional distress that goes with it," said MacDonald. Her lab is the only one in the nation conducting a major research project on these types of x-ray optics to enhance mammographic imaging. MacDonald and Lee, who attended graduate school at Harvard University together, also collaborate on cancer research with professors in other departments at the University.

Their work is augmented by the X-Ray Optical Systems donation to UAlbany of $116,000 worth of custom x-ray optics. In addition over the past decade, X-Ray Optical Systems has provided continuous cash support for University research of approximately $500,000.

"The ties to the University are what have kept us here, and it’s a mutual benefit for both sides," said David Gibson, president of X-Ray Optical Systems.”We’re one of the earliest examples of what (UAlbany President) Karen Hitchcock has called the ‘co-location model.’ When University professors spend time elbow-to-elbow with our researchers, the transfer of information is far more effective and efficient than making monthly reports. It’s a mutual benefit."

Gibson is the son of company co-founder Walter Gibson, now a Distinguished Service physics professor emeritus, who helped start the firm as an incubator company in 1990. During the company’s early years, it rented space in the basement of the University’s Physics Building, where it flourished and expanded to the point that it outgrew two more sites, finally settling in its new headquarters in East Greenbush in January 2003. Today, X-Ray Optical Systems has 40 employees and sells its x-ray optics for non-destructive materials analysis to the semiconductor, pharmaceutical, steel, cement and other industries all over the world. From the outset, MacDonald — who has been at the University since 1986 — worked closely with Walter Gibson as his company grew.

The collaboration between the University and X-Ray Optical Systems has been fruitful, resulting in several million dollars’ worth of joint funding from NASA, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Army Breast Cancer Research Program.

Lee’s lab is studying cancer-fighting flavonoids found in soy and citrus fruit. She uses fiber-optic-like lenses donated by X-Ray Optical Systems and a powerful digital x-ray detector, valued at $75,000 and donated anonymously by another corporation, to examine how the flavonoid molecular structures change as they are heated, in a process similar to cooking food.

The $75,000 detector” offers an enormous step forward in x-ray detection," said Lee, who is using the digital detector to make images of x-ray diffraction patterns from microscopic soy flavonoid crystals as tiny as one-tenth the width of a human hair. From these images she will identify the precise atomic positions of the atoms in the flavonoid molecules, which will help ascertain how these molecules prevent and treat certain types of cancers.

The flavonoids are potentially powerful alternatives to estrogen replacement therapy prescribed for menopausal women who are at risk of developing such diseases as heart disease, osteoporosis and certain cancers of the reproductive system.

Almost 90 percent of American women suffer serious medical problems or significant discomfort during and after menopause. By comparison, less than one percent of Asian women suffer such menopausal and post-menopausal problems. Similarly, the risk of prostate cancer in American men is very high, compared to Asian men.

Studies have identified diet — specifically Asians’ high soy and tea intake — as the major factor governing the different incidences of the hormonally related diseases between Asian and American people. Cancer-fighting flavonoids have been discovered in these foods, yet in Western clinical trials the flavonoids have not shown the same degree of cancer-protection that the Asian diet appears to provide.

Lee noticed that all the Western trials had been performed with unheated flavonoids, while Asians tend to cook their food, sometimes to extremely high temperatures (almost 700ºF), for example, when frying in a wok. She wondered if the cooking process could change the molecular structure of the flavonoids in such a way that their anti-cancer properties were enhanced. Lee’s group is studying how the flavonoid molecular structures change when the flavonoids are heated, and they have found hints that some unusual molecular changes have occurred, which may provide a clue in solving the puzzle. However, these changes are so subtle that a new type of x-ray diffractometer is needed to analyze the changes, and Lee’s group is developing such an instrument with the donated equipment.

For more imformation, please contact Carol Bullard in the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations at 518-437-4976.

TOP OF PAGE