Gastrointestinal tract
The Winstar OCTIS® product is a real-time 3D tomographic optical imaging technology. The physical principle of OCT is similar to ultrasound, but it uses near-infrared light instead of sound waves. It can provide cross-sectional images of living tissue morphology with micron-scale resolution. By combining with endoscopes, fine needles, catheters, laparoscopes and other devices, OCT has great imaging potential in oncological surgery. Current research suggests that OCT has potential applications in the following areas of gastrointestinal cancer surgery:
(1) Early stage cancer screening and diagnosis: OCT can distinguish between polyp tissue, normal tissue and malignant tissue, and may identify precancerous lesions, such as gastrointestinal metaplasia, Helicobacter pylori-associated gastritis, involving the mucosa or submucosa. Early gastric cancer, as well as the distinction between adenomatous polyps and hyperplastic polyps.
(2) Optical biopsy of lymph nodes: OCT, as a high-resolution near-infrared imaging technology, can visualize microscopic features within tissues, distinguish lymph node tissue from surrounding adipose tissue, and display lymph node structure (e.g., germinal centers and intranodal vessels). To show the changes of lymph node microstructure during metastatic tumor infiltration.
(3) Accurate surgical navigation, guided intraoperative resection: In other oral cancers such as squamous cell carcinoma and breast cancer, OCT can be quickly and extensively scanned to guide surgical resection of neoplastic diseases at the cellular level. Scanning the residual tumor foci at the edge of the tumor, or even the metastasis of tumor cells, suggests that in the surgical treatment of colorectal cancer, the feasibility of real-time laparoscopic OCT for the detection of incisional margins and lymph nodes in the future can be used to determine the appropriate extent of bowel resection. Lymph node dissection range.
At present, there are few reports about the intraoperative use of OCT in gastrointestinal cancer surgery, suggesting that OCT has extensive research space in this area.