Noninvasive oral cancer test to be soon available

More effective detection and diagnosis of oral cancer could result from an advance in noninvasive imaging of epithelial tissue, according to a study in Journal of Biomedical Optics (March 19, 2013).

Researchers from Texas A&M University in College Station used confocal microscopy together with fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) to noninvasively evaluate structural changes in tissue and molecular changes that take place on a cellular and tissue level. These morphological and biochemical changes are key factors in determining if tissue is precancerous or cancerous, the researchers stated in a press release.

Visually determining areas in the oral cavity that warrant a biopsy can be difficult because a patient’s mouth can manifest large, heterogeneous lesions that may be both benign and precancerous and indistinguishable by eye, they noted. Their imaging technique is designed to more precisely guide doctors to the troubled areas of a patient’s mouth through the use of optical images.

FLIM enables researchers to image large areas of oral tissue with ultraviolet light in a manner that shows signs of the molecular changes associated with precancer and cancer, revealing potential trouble areas. Confocal microscopy is a single-point measurement (about 0.5 mm in this case) with a high sensitivity to provide information about the morphological features of tissue.

By combining the two imaging techniques, FLIM can act as a guide for the confocal microscopy utilized in this approach.

So far, the results have been promising, according to the researchers. They have been able to combine the two systems so that the macroscopic and microscopic images produced from each technology can be coregistered.

The researchers are working to obtain more data points before claiming the sensitivity and specificity required from a system such as this. The researchers are in the process of analyzing additional data from a hamster model of oral cancer and working with the Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas to evaluate the imaging system on samples of human oral biopsy tissue.