Multimodal optical imaging of skin lesions for cancer detection and evaluation

authored by

Anatoly Fedorov Kukk

supervised by

Bernhard Wilhelm Roth

Abstract

The incidence of skin cancer, in particular melanoma, has been steadily increasing over the past few decades. Early-stage melanoma often exhibits minimal symptoms, making it challenging to detect. However, when it progresses to later stages and spreads to the lymph nodes, the chances of survival significantly decrease. The current diagnostic gold standard involves invasive and time-consuming procedures, such as visual examination, excision, and histological examination of tissue samples. To solve this problem, a new multimodal optical system was developed that addresses these challenges by integrating ultrasound (US), photoacoustic tomography (PAT), optical coherence tomography (OCT) and Raman spectroscopy (RS) into a single measurement unit. The OCT modality delivers detailed structural and depth information for thin skin lesions. Meanwhile, ultrasound (US) and photoacoustic tomography (PAT) enable the assessment of penetration depth of thicker lesions. Raman spectroscopy analyzes the chemical composition of skin lesions, aiding in the differentiation between benign and malignant cases. This work describes the system that was developed during the project, including the conceptualization, construction, programming and characterization. The imaging capabilities of the system were demonstrated through measurements on custom-made agar phantoms and ex vivo melanoma samples. Additionally, the clinical capability of the system was demonstrated with in vivo results on human skin, which were obtained at the University Medical Center Rostock.

Organisation(s)

Photonics - Optical Analytics, Sensing and Spectroscopy
Hannover Centre for Optical Technologies (HOT)

Type

Doctoral thesis

No. of pages

140

Publication date

16.09.2024

Publication status

Published

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.15488/17986 (Access: Open)