Assessment of regional lymph node status in breast cancer is of important staging and prognostic value. Even though formal histological examination is the currently accepted standard of care, optical imaging techniques have shown promising results in disease diagnosis. In the present article, we review six spectroscopic techniques and focus on their use as alternative tools for breast cancer lymph node assessment. Elastic scattering spectroscopy (ESS) seems to offer a simple, cost-effective, and reproducible method for intraoperative diagnosis of breast cancer lymph node metastasis. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) provides high-resolution tissue scanning, along with a short data acquisition time. However, it is relatively costly and experimentally complex. Raman spectroscopy proves to be a highly accurate method for the identification of malignant axillary lymph nodes, and it has been further validated in the setting of head and neck cancers. Still, it remains time-consuming. Near-infrared fluorescence imaging (NIRF) and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DFS) are related to significant advantages, such as deep tissue penetration and efficiency. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is a promising method but has significant drawbacks. Nonetheless, only anecdotal reports exist on their clinical use for cancerous lymph node detection. Our results indicate that optical imaging methods can create informative and rapid tools to effectively guide surgical decision-making.
乳腺癌区域淋巴结状态的评估具有重要的分期和预后价值。尽管目前公认的标准诊疗方法是进行正式的组织学检查，但光学成像技术在疾病诊断中已显示出良好的应用前景。本文综述了六种光谱技术，并重点探讨了它们作为乳腺癌淋巴结评估替代工具的应用价值。弹性散射光谱（ESS）似乎为乳腺癌淋巴结转移的术中诊断提供了一种简单、经济且可重复的方法。光学相干断层扫描（OCT）能提供高分辨率的组织扫描，且数据采集时间短，但其成本相对较高，实验操作也较为复杂。拉曼光谱被证明是识别恶性腋窝淋巴结的一种高精度方法，并已在头颈癌领域得到进一步验证，但其检测过程仍较为耗时。近红外荧光成像（NIRF）和漫反射光谱（DFS）具有显著优势，如组织穿透深度大、检测效率高。傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）是一种前景广阔的方法，但也存在明显缺陷。然而，目前关于这些技术用于癌性淋巴结检测的临床报道仍较为零散。我们的研究结果表明，光学成像方法能够创建信息丰富且快速的分析工具，从而有效指导手术决策。
Optical Imaging in Human Lymph Node Specimens for Detecting Breast Cancer Metastases: A Review
肿瘤(癌症)患者之家