A particular application of interest for tissue reflectance spectroscopy in the UV-Visible is intraoperative
detection of residual cancer at the margins of excised breast tumors, which could prevent costly and
unnecessary repeat surgeries. Our multi-disciplinary group has developed an optical imaging device, which
is capable of surveying the entire specimen surface down to a depth of 1-2mm, all within a short time as
required for intraoperative use. In an IRB-approved study, reflectance spectral images were acquired from
54 margins in 48 patients. Conversion of the spectral images to quantitative tissue parameter maps was
facilitated by a fast scalable inverse Monte-Carlo model. Data from margin parameter images were
reduced to image-descriptive scalar values and compared to gold-standard margin pathology. The utility of
the device for classification of margins was determined via the use of a conditional inference tree modeling
approach, and was assessed both as a function of type of disease present at the margin, as well as a function
of distance of disease from the issue surface. Additionally, the influence of breast density on the diagnostic
parameters, as well as the accuracy of the device, was evaluated.
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