Discrimination of healthy oral tissue from oral cancer based on the mean grey value determined by optical coherence tomography.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to identify a quantitative index for optical coherence tomography (OCT) images to discriminate tumours from surrounding tissues.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

Based on OCT measurements, mean grey values were determined from 432 locations on fifty-four human tissue specimens (eighteen cancerous, para-cancerous, and normal tissues each). These results were histologically evaluated by hematoxylin and eosin staining (H&E).

RESULTS

The mean grey values of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) measurements were significantly different from those of the surrounding healthy tissue (p value < 0.0001), with the former being higher. The sensitivity and specificity of detecting tumourous tissue using this approach were 93 and 94%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

OCT as a non-invasive, real-time imaging method, correlates well with H&E pathological images. It can effectively distinguish squamous cell carcinoma from normal tissues with high sensitivity and specificity and is thus expected to assist and guide tumour margin evaluation.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

This discovery highlights the potential of OCT in the objective evaluation of tumour margin during surgery.