Fiber-optic Raman spectroscopy has been demonstrated in various organs (e.g. gastric, esophagus, colon, oral cavity, nasopharynx and larynx,) in vivo. Although state-of-the-art fiber-optic Raman spectroscopy enables label-free precancer and cancer detection, it remains ineffective in surgery settings where larger tissue areas must be surveyed. This is because fiber-optic Raman spectroscopy is based on point-wise or confocal measurements of tissue (< 0.04 mm3 sampling volume) and therefore does not provide the field of view necessary for identifying microscopic foci. The vision that drove IMAGINE was the ability to enable widefield imaging based on the vibrational Raman spectrum of tissue. The ground-breaking idea was to use narrow bandpass filters in a widefield setting to image the protein to lipid ratio. Hence, IMAGINE successfully introduced a radical new methodology, not through incremental improvements, but instead by capitalising on novel instrumental design.
This research can potentially have significant socio-economic impact. The average lifetime costs for colon cancer is estimated at over ~40.000 € per patient. The potential socioeconomic impact of providing high accuracy minimally-invasive in vivo cancer margin delineation is very high. With accurate tumour delineation, the relapse and follow-up procedures would be greatly reduced, which in turn would have impact in terms of public health cost savings. Improved margin delineation would facilitate more efficient eradication, and therefore the recurrence and follow-up procedures would be reduced, which in turn drastically reduces public health costs.
