Quantification of structural and microvascular changes for diagnosing early-stage oral cancer.

Ping-Hsien Chen,Yi-Fen Chen,Ming-Chih Hou,Kuo-Wei Chang,Wen-Chuan Kuo,Yu-Ju Chen,Yi-Chen Yeh

doi:10.1364/boe.384608

Abstract

Changes in mucosal microvascular networks, called intraepithelial papillary capillary loops (IPCL), are an important key factor for diagnosing early-stage oral cancer in vivo. Nevertheless, there are a lack of tools to quantify these changes objectively. This is the first study to quantify the IPCL changes in vivo to differentiate benign or malignant oral lesions by the optical coherence tomography (OCT) technique. K14-EGFP-miR-211-GFP transgenic mice were inducted by 4-Nitroquinoline-1-oxide to produce oral carcinogenesis in different stages, including normal, premalignancy and cancer. The results showed significant differentiation between benign or malignant lesions by OCT quantitative parameters, including epithelial thickness, IPCL density, radius and tortuosity.

Highlights

Change in the mucosal microvascular networks, called intraepithelial papillary capillary loops (IPCLs), is a key factor for diagnosing oral and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in the early stage
Magnifying endoscopy with narrow-band imaging (ME-NBI) is the most popular technique to observe the change in the IPCL in vivo and has been broadly used in the diagnosis of esophageal SCC [1]
The original en-face IPCL images and magnified IPCL images are presented in Fig. 3(A), (B)

Summary

Introduction

Change in the mucosal microvascular networks, called intraepithelial papillary capillary loops (IPCLs), is a key factor for diagnosing oral and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in the early stage. Magnifying endoscopy with narrow-band imaging (ME-NBI) is the most popular technique to observe the change in the IPCL in vivo and has been broadly used in the diagnosis of esophageal SCC [1]. Its use in oral SCC has been studied in a small series with sensitivity of 75.7% and specificity of 91.5% [2,3]. This method has some limitations and restricted clinical use, especially in the oral cavity. The requirement for computer-assisted diagnosis (CAD) to overcome this subjectivity had increased in recent years [5]. Imprecise operation can cause mucosal bleeding and reduce the image quality

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