Development of a multimodal foveated endomicroscope for the detection of oral cancer.

A multimodal endomicroscope was developed for cancer detection that combines hyperspectral and confocal imaging through a single foveated objective and a vibrating optical fiber bundle. Standard clinical examination has a limited ability to identify early stage oral cancer. Optical detection methods are typically restricted by either achievable resolution or a small field-of-view. By combining high resolution and widefield spectral imaging into a single probe, a device was developed that provides spectral and spatial information over a 5 mm field to locate suspicious lesions that can then be inspected in high resolution mode. The device was evaluated on ex vivo biopsies of human oral tumors.