Effects of surgical resection on tissue autofluorescence lifetime signatures in head and neck cancer: implications for intraoperative tumor margin assessment

Significance

Accurate identification of residual tumor during head and neck cancer surgery is essential for preventing local recurrences and improving patient outcomes, yet current methods for intraoperative margin assessment remain limited. Fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIm), a label-free optical technique, has shown strong potential for distinguishing cancerous from noncancerous tissue in vivo. However, the effect of tissue resection on autofluorescence properties is not well defined, raising the question of whether diagnostic signatures establishedin vivo translate reliably to ex vivo specimens. Learn more about this research.