En-face polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography to characterize early-stage esophageal cancer and determine tumor margin

Ping-Hsien Chen; Hiu-Ki Lai; Yi-Chen Yeh; Kuo-Wei Chang; Ming-Chih Hou; Wen-Chuan Kuo

doi:10.1364/BOE.463451

En-face polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography to characterize early-stage esophageal cancer and determine tumor margin

Biomed Opt Express. 2022 Aug 15;13(9):4773-4786. doi: 10.1364/BOE.463451. eCollection 2022 Sep 1.

Authors

Ping-Hsien Chen^{1

2

3

4

5}, Hiu-Ki Lai^{4

5}, Yi-Chen Yeh^{3

6}, Kuo-Wei Chang^{7

8

9}, Ming-Chih Hou^{3

10}, Wen-Chuan Kuo⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Gastroenterology, West Garden Hospital, Taipei 108, Taiwan.
² Endoscopy Center for Diagnosis and Treatment, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei 112, Taiwan.
³ Department of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei 112, Taiwan.
⁴ Institute of Biophotonics, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei 112, Taiwan.
⁵ Ping-Hsien Chen and Hiu-Ki Lai have an equal contribution.
⁶ Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei 112, Taiwan.
⁷ Institute of Oral Biology, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei 112, Taiwan.
⁸ Department of Dentistry, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei 112, Taiwan.
⁹ Department of Stomatology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei 112, Taiwan.
¹⁰ Vice Superintendent, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei 112, Taiwan.

Abstract

Current imaging tools are insufficiently sensitive to the early diagnosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The application of polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) to detect tumor-stroma interaction is an interesting issue in cancer diagnosis. In this translational study, we found that en-face PS-OCT effectively characterizes protruding, flat, and depressive type ESCC regardless of animal or human specimens. In addition, the tumor contour and margin could also be drawn and determined on a broad en-face view. The determined tumor margin could be in the proximity of 2 mm to the actual tumor margin, which was proved directly using histology.