About This Webinar
Surgery is a common cancer treatment for dogs and cats. Removing the complete tumor results in lower recurrence rates and improved survival rates. After surgery, the tumor is assessed for completeness of the resection, using post-operative histopathology. This process takes several days and is able to evaluate only a small portion of the tissues. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive optical imaging technique that is a solution for real-time intraoperative surgical margin assessment that allows rapid visualization of the tissue microstructure at the surgical margins.
Multiple clinical trials have been conducted to evaluate intraoperative OCT imaging in dogs and cats with skin tumors, including soft tissue sarcomas (STSs), mast cell tumors, and mammary tumors. To date, Dr. Laura Selmic and her team have found high sensitivity and specificity for detection of incomplete margins after surgical excision of skin tumors in dog and feline injection-site sarcoma. These results reveal that OCT has potential for showing the demarcation between tumor and other normal tissues, including muscle, fat, and skin. Real-time surgical margin imaging could facilitate an immediate surgical intervention if such imaging shows that the tumor was not completely removed, minimizing additional treatments that may lead to patient morbidity and further financial commitment for owners.
Who should attend:
Researchers and medical professionals interested in OCT and its capabilities. Those who are interested in or working in fields such as veterinary
medicine, cancer research, pharmaceutical, medical, imaging, and microscopy. Anyone who would like to understand the recent progress made in the use of OCT in surgery.
About the presenter:
Dr. Laura Selmic is an associate professor of surgical oncology at Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in veterinary medicine from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London in 2004. She completed a residency in small animal surgery at Texas A&M University in 2010. In 2011, she completed a clinical fellowship in oncologic surgery at the Flint Animal Cancer Center at Colorado State University. In 2012, Selmic was recognized as a board-certified specialist of small animal surgery and a founding fellow of surgical oncology. She spent two years as a research scientist at Colorado State University and, in 2013, completed a Master of Public Health degree with a focus in applied biostatistics. She joined Ohio State University in 2018. Selmic’s research interests include optical imaging to enhance surgical planning and assessment of surgical margins, cancer epidemiology, clinical trial, and study design. Over the last eight years, she has conducted multiple clinical trials evaluating optical coherence tomography (OCT) for surgical margin assessment in dogs and cats.