Improving oral cavity cancer diagnosis and treatment with fluorescence molecular imaging

• Published in: Oral diseases Vol. 27; no. 1; pp. 21 - 26
• Main Authors: Vonk, Jasper, de Wit, Jaron Gérard, Voskuil, Floris Jan, Witjes, Max Johannes Hendrikus
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Denmark Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.01.2021; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Cancer and Potentially Malignant Disorders; Carcinogenesis; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell - diagnostic imaging; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell - surgery; Diagnosis; early diagnosis; Fluorescence; fluorescence imaging; fluorescence‐guided surgery; Head and Neck Neoplasms; Humans; Invited Concise Review; Molecular Imaging; Mouth Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Mouth Neoplasms - surgery; Optical Imaging; Oral cancer; Oral carcinoma; Oral cavity; Oral squamous cell carcinoma; Spatial discrimination; Squamous cell carcinoma; Surgery; surgical resection margin evaluation; Tumors; early diagnosis; fluorescence-guided surgery; oral squamous cell carcinoma; molecular imaging; fluorescence imaging; surgical resection margin evaluation
• ISSN: 1354-523X; 1601-0825
• DOI: 10.1111/odi.13308

Early diagnosis and radical surgical excision of oral squamous cell carcinomas are essential for achieving optimal treatment outcomes. To date, diagnostic tools that rely on anatomical anomalies provide limited information and resolution in clinical practice. As a result, oral cancer is often detected in an advanced stage. Also, no reliable real‐time intraoperative tools are readily available for the evaluation of surgical resection margins. Fluorescence imaging visualises biological processes that occur in early carcinogenesis and could, therefore, enable detection of small tumours in early stages. Furthermore, due to the high sensitivity and spatial resolution, fluorescence imaging could assist in resection margin assessment during surgery. In this review, we discuss several techniques that employ fluorescence for early diagnosis and surgical guidance in oral squamous cell carcinoma and present future perspectives on the potential of fluorescence imaging in oral cancer in the near future.