(617) Evaluation of a Noninvasive Widefield en-face Probe for Detection of Oral Dysplasia and Invasive Carcinoma

Introduction: Conventional oral examination with biopsy and histological evaluation remains the gold standard diagnostic technique but is often unable to provide early detection of high risk or malignant lesions. Autofluorescence of endogenous tissue fluorophores has shown promise for early detection of biochemical/tissue changes due to oral epithelial dysplasia and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC); with increased interest in compact imaging devices, there is value in evaluating these devices for detection of endogenous green and red autofluorescence.

Methods: In this study, we evaluated a 1.5mm 120° CMOS microsensor’s (Omnivision) ability to detect red and green autofluorescence in clinical oral cancer tumor samples. Twenty-five freshly resected oral cancer samples were acquired from 2024-2025 and imaged using a custom en face probe. Intensity analysis of red and green channels was acquired across a FOV of 1.10x1.10cm at sites grossly evaluated as tumor, normal, or transition. Red/green (R/G) autofluorescence intensity ratios were calculated in each category.

Results: Results show normalized R/G ratios increase from grossly normal to tumor, indicating that the microsensor is sensitive to detection of autofluorescence, and R/G ratio may be promising for delineation of areas of interest.

Conclusions: This study establishes groundwork for clinically translating compact imaging sensors for label-free oral cancer detection. Future pixel by pixel analysis is being conducted for evaluations of spatial variations within regions of interest to identify areas exhibiting distinct autofluorescence characteristics relative to neighboring sites.