Detection of remaining cancer after tumor removal

Surgery is the most common treatment used for skin and mammary cancer in dogs. The pathologist determines whether surgery has removed all cancer cells many days after the procedure. We need rapid and accurate testing during surgery to detect residual cancer to decrease cancer recurrence and the necessity for repeated surgery or treatments.
 

Polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) is an imaging technology that uses near-infrared light waves to generate real-time, high-resolution images of the microscopic structure of tissues, specifically looking at the organization of the tissues. We have performed some initial evaluations using this optical coherence tomography for detection of residual cancer, which has had very encouraging results.
 

This study will focus on assessing whether PS-OCT (a new type of optical coherence tomography) could help us improve the accuracy to detect residual cancer in dogs following mammary cancer removal. This project will open the door to veterinarians having the technology to allow accurate real-time interpretation of surgical margins to minimize the necessity for additional surgeries or other treatments and decrease the tumor recurrence.