Optical sensing for tumor detection in the liver

Area of Science:

• Optical imaging
• Medical diagnostics
• Surgical guidance

Background:

• Optical imaging techniques are increasingly used in surgery.
• Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS) identifies tissue types via unique optical fingerprints.
• Investigated DRS for differentiating metastatic liver tumors from normal liver tissue.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the potential of DRS in distinguishing metastatic tumor tissue from normal liver tissue.
• To evaluate DRS for integration into surgical or radiological intervention tools.

Main Methods:

• Developed a miniaturized optical needle for DRS spectral collection (500-1600 nm).
• Analyzed liver specimens from 24 patients with colorectal liver metastases using DRS post-resection.
• Compared DRS results with histological analysis and scored hepatic steatosis.

Main Results:

• Achieved 94% sensitivity and specificity in classifying normal versus tumor liver tissue (780/828 measurements).
• Individual patient analysis demonstrated 100% accuracy.
• High correlation (Spearman's rank 0.86) between DRS-estimated and pathologist-assessed hepatic steatosis.

Conclusions:

• DRS accurately differentiates normal liver tissue from colorectal liver metastases.
• DRS reliably predicts the degree of hepatic steatosis.
• The needle-probe DRS technique is suitable for incorporation into surgical or radiological tools for optical guidance.