Development of optical spectroscopy instruments and quantification methods to guide the resection of tumors in neurosurgery

脑癌的初始治疗步骤（在使用化疗药物和/或放疗之前）是以下手术步骤之一：(1)立体定向针活检提取肿瘤组织标本，以便做出诊断；(2)尽可能多地切除肿瘤，以减少术后复发的机会。发展快速准确的肿瘤检测技术来指导这些手术在神经外科中是至关重要的，在神经外科中，切除或活检的正常组织的数量最小化是非常可取的，以避免对运动和认知功能的损害。该研究计划的总体目标是开发一系列创新的高灵敏度成像和光检测方法，用于体内脑肿瘤的表征，以便在手术期间准确检测病变边缘。更具体地说，将开发光谱学诊断仪器和数据处理算法，利用非电离光组织相互作用机制来量化与脑癌相关的各种生物标志物。新技术的工程设计将确保与神经外科工作流程的兼容性，以便在手术室中常规使用并促进临床采用。目前用于神经外科的医学成像仪器在充分检测和精确定位肿瘤边缘的能力方面是有限的。通过所提出的研究所取得的技术进步将通过显着扩大手术时可获得的体内组织信息的数量来改善这一点，从而最终导致更安全，更准确的干预。这项新技术也有可能通过减少在手术室花费的时间和限制由于诊断不准确而重复手术的次数来降低与手术相关的成本。虽然该项目主要关注脑肿瘤，但其长期目标是扩大核心技术的适用范围，使其能够适应与其他类型的癌症（如乳腺癌、宫颈癌、口腔和咽喉）相关的手术。

The initial treatment step for brain cancer (before using chemotherapeutic drugs and/or radiation) is one of the following surgical procedures: (1) stereotactic needle biopsy to extract tumor tissue specimen allowing a diagnosis to be made, and (2) removal of as much of the tumor as possible to reduce the chances of post-surgical recurrences. The development of rapid and accurate tumor detection techniques to guide these procedures is crucial in neurosurgery where minimizing the amount of normal tissue that is resected or biopsied is highly desirable to avoid damage to motor and cognitive functions. The overarching goal of the proposed research program is to develop a range of innovative highly sensitive imaging and light detection methods for in vivo brain tumor characterization to provide accurate detection of lesion margins during surgery. More specifically, optical spectroscopy diagnostic instruments and data processing algorithms will be developed, exploiting non-ionizing light-tissue interaction mechanisms to quantify various biological markers associated with brain cancer. The engineering design of the new technologies will insure compatibility with the neurosurgical workflow in order to allow routine use in operating rooms and facilitate clinical adoption. The medical imaging instruments currently used in neurosurgery are limited in terms of their ability to fully detect and precisely localize tumor margins. Technological advances made through the proposed research will improve this by significantly expanding the amount of in vivo tissue information available at the time of surgery, thereby eventually resulting in safer and more accurate interventions. This new technology also has the potential to reduce the cost associated with surgery by reducing the time spent in the operating room and limiting the number of repeat procedures owing to diagnostic inaccuracies. Although this program primarily focuses on brain tumors, a longer-term goal is to broaden the scope of applicability of the core technology so it can be adapted to surgeries associated with other types of cancer such as breast, cervix, mouth and throat.