Objectives: A major challenge in non-small cell lung cancer surgery is the occurrence of positive tumor margins. This may lead to the need for additional surgeries and has been linked to poor patient prognosis. This study aims to develop an in vivo surgical tool that can differentiate cancerous from noncancerous lung tissue at the margin.
Methods: A time-resolved fluorescence and diffuse reflectance bimodal device was used to measure the lifetime, spectra, and intensities of endogenous fluorophores as well as optical properties of lung tissue. The tumor and fibrotic tissue data, each containing 36 samples, was obtained from patients who underwent surgical removal of lung tissue after being diagnosed with squamous carcinoma but before any other treatment was administered. The normal lung tissue data were obtained from nine normal tissue samples.
Results: The results show a statistically significant difference between cancerous and noncancerous tissue. The results also show a difference in metabolic related optical properties between fibrotic and normal lung tissue samples.
Conclusions: This work demonstrates the feasibility of a device that can differentiate cancerous and noncancerous lung tissue for patients diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma.
Keywords: absorption coefficient; diffuse reflectance; fluorescence intensity; fluorescence lifetime; optical properties; optical spectroscopy; scattering coefficient; time-resolved fluorescence.
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