A 3D imaging technique captures cancer's growth

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH A MOUSE'S PANCREATIC DUCT NETWORK. (HENDRIK MESSAL / FRANCIS CRICK INSTITUTE)

Scientists have developed a new technique to study biopsies in 3D — and in testing it, have turned up clues about how pancreatic cancers form and develop. The imaging technique allows scientists to analyze tissue — in this case, from a mouse pancreas — down to the single cell. When they looked at biopsies from every angle, the researchers saw that cancers that develop in pancreatic ducts grow either inward or outward, depending on the size of the duct. Now, the scientists are hoping to study whether a tumor growing inward or outward has an impact on how cancer spreads.