Enhancing intraoperative tumor delineation with multispectral short-wave infrared fluorescence imaging and machine learning

Significance: Fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) provides specific real-time visualization of tumors, but intensity-based measurement of fluorescence is prone to errors. Multispectral imaging (MSI) in the short-wave infrared (SWIR) has the potential to improve tumor delineation by enabling machine-learning classification of pixels based on their spectral characteristics.Aim: Determine whether MSI can be applied to FGS and combined with machine learning to provide a robust method for tumor visualization.Approach: A multispectral SWIR fluorescence imaging device capable of collecting data from six spectral filters was constructed and deployed on neuroblastoma (NB) subcutaneous xenografts (n = 6) after the injection of a NB-specific NIR-I fluorescent probe (Dinutuximab-IRDye800). We constructed image cubes representing fluorescence collected from ~ 850 to 1450 nm and compared the performance of seven learning-based methods for pixel-by-pixel classification, including linear discriminant analysis, k-nearest neighbor classification, and a neural network.Results: The spectra of tumor and non-tumor tissue were subtly different and conserved between individuals. In classification, a combine principal component analysis and k-nearest-neighbor approach with area under curve normalization performed best, achieving 97.5% per-pixel classification accuracy (97.1%, 93.5%, and 99.2% for tumor, non-tumor tissue and background, respectively).Conclusions: The development of dozens of new imaging agents provides a timely opportunity for multispectral SWIR imaging to revolutionize next-generation FGS.