Abstract
Oral cancer is a potentially fatal disease that constitutes an important portion of tumors of head and neck region. More than 90% of oral cancers are oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC). Regardless of the fact that the oral cavity is easily accessible to the accumulation of carcinogens, most oral cancers are typically detected at an advanced stage leading to lower survival rate among subjects. Therefore, early detection of the oral cancer and its precursor lesions may be the most effective means to improve prognosis and treatment in most patients. One of the emerging technologies is the use of optical methods to capture the molecular changes at high-resolution to improve the detection capability of early stage disease. Optical diagnosis techniques when compared with traditional approaches such as vital staining, biopsy has many advantages such as objectivity, speed, and cost. Moreover, these incorporate particularly noninvasive methods of oral cancer detection. The present article highlights various optical methods and their role in oral cancer detection.
Highlights
As general dentists lack the experience to identify early lesion development in oral cancer, any suspicious lesion may be referred to oral cancer specialists, who can frequently recognize subtle visual changes associated with early lesions
An Optical coherence tomography (OCT) system can be readily combined with nonlinear optical modalities, such as two-photon excited fluorescence and second-harmonic generation
Limitations Some limitations of Contact endoscopy (CE) include the following: at high magnification, the image resolution obtained by contact endoscopy is significantly affected by glare from light reflected by cells not in focus
Summary
The diagnosis of oral cancer and/or the malignant potential of an oral lesion is based on various aspects such as (a) etiology-associated with the use of tobacco, (b) presence of factors such as detection of HPV clinical appearance of the lesion (leukoplakic, erythroplakic, nodular, ulcerative, verrucous), (c) location of the lesion—the high risk sites being floor of the mouth, ventrolateral aspect of the tongue, and so on, (d) histopathological aspects—presence of epithelial dysplasia, and (e) molecular biological aspects of the lesion.[5]. Gupta P: An update on light-based technologies and fluorescent imaging in oral cancer detection the specificity values (Specificity is the ability of the test to correctly identify those without the disease) that ranged from 75 to 99%.[7] As general dentists lack the experience to identify early lesion development in oral cancer, any suspicious lesion may be referred to oral cancer specialists, who can frequently recognize subtle visual changes associated with early lesions. When ViziLite was compared with Toluidine Blue, it showed better diagnostic values; it did not provide additional diagnostic value compared to the conventional clinical examination
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