About This Webinar
Marcu reviews the development of clinically compatible fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) technology and applications in surgical oncology. Emphasis is placed on the integration of FLIM in surgical workflow and the potential of the approach to improve surgical decision-making during transoral robotic surgery (TORS) and neurosurgical procedures. She discusses clinical outcomes and results and demonstrates the straightforward coupling of FLIM apparatus with the da Vinci surgical platform and the neuronavigation system. Also, she shows innovative methods for real-time dynamic augmentation of imaging parameters on the surgical field of view as seen on the da Vinci console and surgical microscope.
Current results demonstrate the utility of FLIM-derived parameters detecting tissue biochemical and metabolic characteristics to distinguish oral and oropharyngeal cancer in real time from surrounding normal tissue in patients in situ during TORS, as well as to sense infiltrative brain cancer at the resection margins. Our findings suggest that label-free FLIM-based tissue assessment — characterized by simple, fast, and flexible data acquisition and display — could find applications in a variety of surgical procedures. Finally, Marcu discusses challenges in the development of practical FLIM devices, obstacles in their broader clinical adoption, and how the photonics industry could contribute to overcoming current impediments.
***This presentation premiered during the 2022
BioPhotonics Conference. For more information on Photonics Media conferences, visit
events.photonics.com.
About the presenter
Laura Marcu, Ph.D., is professor of biomedical engineering and neurological surgery at the University of California, Davis. She received her doctorate in biomedical engineering in 1998 from the University of Southern California. Her research interest is in the area of biomedical optics, with a particular focus on research for the development of optical techniques for tissue diagnostics, including applications in oncology, interventional cardiology, and tissue engineering. She serves as the director of the National Center for Interventional Biophotonic Technologies. Since 2007 she has served as co-director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center of the Biomedical Technology Program at the UC Davis Medical Center. She has authored over 200 articles (120 peer-reviewed). Currently, she is a member of the editorial boards for the Journal of Biophotonics and Translational Biophotonics, and she was the associate editor for Biomedical Optics Express. She is a fellow of AAAS, AIMBE, BMES, Optica, SPIE, and NAI.