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Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging in Surgical Oncology

Special Events

Speaker: Laura Marcu, UC Davis (BME)
Related Webpage: https://bme.ucdavis.edu/people/laura-marcu
Location: 1147 MSB
Start time: Fri, Dec 2 2022, 1:15PM

This presentation reviews the development of clinically-compatible fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) technology and applications in surgical oncology. Emphasis is placed on the integration of FLIM in surgical workflow and the potential of this approach to improve surgical decision-making during trans-oral robotic surgery (TORS) and neurosurgical procedures. Clinical outcomes and results will be discussed. We demonstrate the straightforward coupling of FLIM apparatus with the da Vinci surgical platform and the neuronavigation system. Also, we show innovative methods for real-time dynamic augmentation of imaging parameters on the surgical field of view as seen on the da Vinci console and surgical microscope. Current results demonstrate the utility of FLIM-derived parameters detecting tissue biochemical and metabolic characteristics to distinguish oral and oropharyngeal cancer in real-time from surrounding normal tissue in patients in-situ during TORS as well as to sense infiltrative brain cancer at the resection margins. Our findings suggest that label-free FLIM-based tissue assessment, characterized by simple, fast and flexible data acquisition and visualization, could find applications in a variety of surgical procedures.



This is a part of the first Joint CeDAR/UCD4IDS Conference.