Pancreatic tumor margin detection by oblique incidence diffuse reflectance spectroscopy

In surgical treatment of pancreatic cancers, the effectiveness of the procedures largely depends on the ability to completely and precisely remove the malignant tumors. We present the ex-vivo use of oblique incidence diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (OIRDS) to detect and differentiate normal from neoplastic tissue. An OIRDS probe has been constructed to provide scattering and absorption information of the pancreatic tissue. To reveal the physiological origin of the difference in these optical signatures, the optical scattering coefficients were extracted along the pancreatic duct with 1-cm spacing. Experimental results show that OIDRS was able to successfully determinate the tumor margins based on the higher optical scattering on malignant tissue.