Near-infrared autofluorescence polarization imaging for colonic cancer detection

We develop an NIR autofluorescence imaging system combination with polarization technique to explore its potential for cancer diagnosis and detection. Colon tissues (normal vs. cancer) from patients who underwent colonoscopy or surgical resections were used for this study. The tissue imaging including NIR white light images, autofluorescence (AF) images and FPI images (parallel-, and perpendicular- polarization) were acquired in tandem. The results show that NIR fluorescence intensity of normal tissue is significantly higher than that of cancer tissue. The perpendicular-polarization image yields the highest diagnostic accuracy 93% compared to other imaging modes. This work demonstrates that Fluorescence polarization imaging (FPI) technique has great potential for cancer diagnosis and detection in the colon.