Non-linear multimodal mircoendoscopy for lung cancer pathology

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Lung cancer is the leading cause (~28%) of cancer-related deaths. This proposal addresses two major challenges in the management of individuals at high-risk for lung cancer: A) differential diagnosis of peripheral lung lesions, and B) detection of dysplastic lesions in the central bronchus. Current technologies, such as low-dose CT and standard white-light bronchoscopy, can image dysplastic lesions but their specificity for detecting malignant tissue is very poor. Hence, there is an urgent need to classify detected lesions in situ accurately and in a minimally-invasive way. We propose to optimize, validate and integrate complementary non-linear optical techniques, including two or more of second harmonic generation (SHG), third harmonic generation (THG), coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) and 2-photon autofluorescence (TPF), for label-free in situ microimaging. We hypothesize that non-linear endoscopic microimaging, integrated into ultrathin scanning-fiber bronchoscopy (an emerging disruptive medical technology), will significantly increase the accuracy, and particularly the specificity, of differential diagnosis of suspicious lung lesions, including peripheral nodules, and thereby enable targeted local destruction of malignant tissue.