Autofluorescence spectroscopic imaging for laryngeal cancer detection

Abstract

Autofluorescence imaging has shown a high sensitivity for early diagnosis and detection of cancer and precancer in humans, however, this diagnostic technique has a limitation with high false positive rates resulting in a low diagnostic specificity. In this study, we develop an endoscope-based autofluorescence imaging system in combination with spectroscopy measurement system for tissue diagnostics and characterization in the head and neck. The results show that combining the spectroscopy and imaging techniques can improve both the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity for discriminating laryngeal carcinoma from normal tissue.