Contact Testing of an Impedance-based Cancer Detection Probe

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a third leading cause of cancer death in United States. Colonoscopy is widely utilized both to detect CRC and to detect and remove adenomatous polyps, precursor lesion to CRC, thus preventing CRC from developing. The current technique for polyp identification requires a biopsy, a process that is difficult to perform in vivo. We seek to improve colonoscopy process by developing an impedance analyzer probe which can detect differences in tissue within existing colonoscopy systems. To this end, we developed a coaxial impedance probe capable of fitting through the 3mm instrument channel of a colonoscope. Using porcine intestinal tissue, we verified that this probe is capable of consistently measuring impedance under different contact conditions, such as variable forces or noisy tissue contact.