Endogenous Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging (FLIM) Endoscopy for Early Detection of Oral Cancer and Dysplasia

We have performed a pilot clinical study, in which multispectral endogenous fluorescence (or autofluorescence) lifetime imaging (FLIM) was performed on clinically suspicious oral lesions of 73 patients undergoing tissue biopsy for oral dysplasia and cancer diagnosis. The results from this pilot study indicated that mild-dysplasia and early stage oral cancer could be detected from benign lesions using a computed aided diagnosis system developed based on biochemical and metabolic biomarkers derived from the endogenous FLIM images. The diagnostic performance of this novel FLIM clinical tool was estimated using a leave-one-patient-out cross-validation approach, which reported levels of sensitivity >90%, specificity > 85%, and Area Under the Receiving Operating Curve (ROC- AUC) >0.9.