Characterization of Mechanical Tissue Properties in Patients With Pancreatic, Liver, or Colon Cancer

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To determine if our optical polarimeter device is able to measure tissue stiffness across several human cancer types ex vivo. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To describe the inter- and intra-tumor heterogeneity of tissue stiffness. II. To determine if the measurements made by the optical polarimeter device are non-destructive. TERTIARY OBJECTIVES: I. Perform multi-variable cross-correlation statistical analysis to determine relationships between: tissue stiffness characteristics, molecular level signatures, and cellular level properties, and if numbers permit, response to treatment. OUTLINE: Patients undergo fresh tumor tissue collection at the time of surgery. The fresh tumor tissue samples are analyzed for tissue stiffness measurements using an optical polarimeter device and cell viability using an automated cell counter.