Mapping tissue optical attenuation to identify cancer using optical coherence tomography.

The lymphatic system is a common route for the spread of cancer and the identification of lymph node metastases is a key task during cancer surgery. This paper demonstrates the use of optical coherence tomography to construct parametric images of lymph nodes. It describes a method to automatically estimate the optical attenuation coefficient of tissue. By mapping the optical attenuation coefficient at each location in the scan, it is possible to construct a parametric image indicating variations in tissue type. The algorithm is applied to ex vivo samples of human axillary lymph nodes and validated against a histological gold standard. Results are shown illustrating the variation in optical properties between cancerous and healthy tissue.