Detection of brain tumor margins using optical coherence tomography

In brain cancer surgery, it is critical to achieve extensive resection without compromising adjacent healthy, non-cancerous regions. Various technological advances have made major contributions in imaging, including intraoperative magnetic imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT). However, these technologies have pros and cons in providing quantitative, real-time and three-dimensional (3D) continuous guidance in brain cancer detection. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive, label-free, cost-effective technique capable of imaging tissue in three dimensions and real time. The purpose of this study is to reliably and efficiently discriminate between non-cancer and cancer-infiltrated brain regions using OCT images. To this end, a mathematical model for quantitative evaluation known as the Blind End- Member and Abundances Extraction method (BEAE). This BEAE method is a constrained optimization technique which extracts spatial information from volumetric OCT images. Using this novel method, we are able to discriminate between cancerous and non-cancerous tissues and using logistic regression as a classifier for automatic brain tumor margin detection. Using this technique, we are able to achieve excellent performance using an extensive cross-validation of the training dataset (sensitivity 92.91% and specificity 98.15%) and again using an independent, blinded validation dataset (sensitivity 92.91% and specificity 86.36%). In summary, BEAE is well-suited to differentiate brain tissue which could support the guiding surgery process for tissue resection.