SKIN CANCER

Principal investigator: Professor Malin Malmsjö

This project focus on evaluating and optimizing PA imaging as a method to detect and outline skin tumors. We are investigating the PA spectral signature of different tumor cells to enable automatic measure­ment of the tumor borders, and test the developed method in the clinical setting, ultimately developing PA imaging into a diagnostic tool for skin cancer.

When operating tumors in regions with limited tissue, such as the eyelids, it is crutial to not remove too much healthy tissue. Every millimeter one can save plays a major role in the extent of the subsequent plastic surgical reconstruction. At the same time, one wants to be sure that all tumor tissue is surgically removed to reduce the risk of recurrence and the need for further surgery. Currently theses types of tumors are surgically removed, after which the tumor borders are evaluated by histology. If the tumor borders are not enough, the patient is re-operated.

Preoperative, non-invasive delineation of a tumor could improve patient management and eliminate the need for further excision. Diagnosis and tumor border identification with several non-invasive imaging techniques has been attempted, but the results have not been satisfactory. In that context, PA  imaging has shown promise: the technique relies on pulsed laser light and optical absorption detected by ultra-high-frequency ultrasound to reveal the molecular composition of tissue at high resolution. However, to date the use of PA imaging has been restricted to pre-clinical experiments and it has not been developed for clinical use. The purpose of the project is to develop PA imaging into a diagnostic tool for skin tumors by identifying the spectral signature of the cancerous cells.