Quantitative spectroscopic imaging for non-invasive early cancer detection

Abstract

We report a fully quantitative spectroscopy imaging instrument for wide area detection of early cancer (dysplasia). This instrument provides quantitative maps of tissue biochemistry and morphology, making it a potentially powerful surveillance tool for objective early cancer detection. We describe the design, construction, calibration, and first clinical application of this new system. We demonstrate its accuracy using physical tissue models. We validate its diagnostic ability on a resected colon adenoma, and demonstrate feasibility of in vivo imaging in the oral cavity.

A low-cost, portable, and quantitative spectral imaging system for application to biological tissues

“…To our knowledge, there is only one group has previously designed a quantitative diffuse reflectance spectral imaging system in the UV-visible wavelength range. This system raster scans the image of a fiber-optic probe (connected to a single channel spectrometer) onto the tissue plane to acquire quantitative images of absorption and scattering contrast [30]. This serial scanning device is considerably slower than a device that images all pixels simultaneously as we propose.…”

Design and fabrication of SiO_2/TiO_2 and MgO/TiO_2 based high selective optical filters for diffuse reflectance and fluorescence signals extraction

“…Its detection in an initial stage, called dysplastic stage, is fundamental in medical diagnosis, once gives to the patient a higher effective treatment chance [2,3]. The GI dysplasia is difficult to detect by conventional visual inspection techniques, due to the lack of macroscopically easily visible changes on the tissues surface, that occur in the early stage of cancer [3,4].…”

“…Therefore, when a cancer suspicion appears a biopsy is needed, which is a high cost and an invasive procedure. Moreover, its result is not immediately available, resulting on a delay of patient's treatment [3]. Thus, it is increasingly important to develop new and minimally invasive techniques for the GI cancers early detection.…”

“…Spectroscopic techniques, specifically diffuse reflectance and fluorescence spectroscopy, can considerably improve the ability to detect GI dysplasia, since they have exquisite sensitivity to some cancer biomarkers present on the tissues [2][3][4][5]. As a result, small changes in those biomarkers concentration, due to cancer progression, can be detected by measuring the diffuse reflectance and fluorescence signals of a GI tissue.…”

Handheld Diffuse Reflectance Spectral Imaging (DRSi) for in-vivo characterization of skin

“…Yu et al was among the first to demonstrate this technique by using scan mirrors to raster scan a white light beam across tissue and de-scan diffusely reflected light that traversed the sampling volume [9]. In their study, the collected spectra of each pixel was fit for reduced scattering and absorption using an analytical model based on the modified diffusion approximation to the radiative transport equation.…”