TY - JOUR T1 - Fluorescent molecular imaging can improve intraoperative sentinel margin detection in oral squamous cell carcinoma JF - Journal of Nuclear Medicine JO - J Nucl Med DO - 10.2967/jnumed.121.262235 SP - jnumed.121.262235 AU - Giri Krishnan AU - Nynke S van den Berg AU - Naoki Nishio AU - Shrey Kapoor AU - Jaqueline Pei AU - Laura Freeman AU - Yu-Jin Lee AU - Stan van Keulen AU - Shayan Fakurnejad AU - James Condon AU - Fred Back AU - Brock Martin AU - Eben L Rosenthal Y1 - 2022/01/01 UR - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/early/2022/01/13/jnumed.121.262235.abstract N2 - Rationale: In head and neck cancer, a major limitation of current intraoperative margin analysis is the ability to detect areas most likely to be positive based on specimen palpation, especially for larger specimens where sampling error limits detection of positive margins. This study aims to prospectively examine the clinical value of fluorescent molecular imaging to accurately identify “the sentinel margin,” the point on a specimen where tumour lies closest to the resected edge in real-time during frozen section analysis. Methods: Eighteen patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma were enrolled into a prospective clinical trial and infused intravenously with 50mg of panitumumab-IRDye800CW 1-5 days prior to surgery. Resected specimens were imaged in a closed-field near-infrared optical imaging system in near-real time, and custom designed software was used to identify locations of highest fluorescence on deep and peripheral margins. The surgeon identified the sentinel margin blinded to optical specimen mapping, and then the regions of highest fluorescence were identified and marked for frozen analysis. Final pathology based on specimen reconstruction was used as reference standard. Results: Resected specimens were imaged in the operating room and fluorescence had a higher interobserver agreement with pathology (Cohen kappa value 0.96) than the surgeon (Cohen kappa values of 0.82) for the location of the closest margin. Plotting margin distance at the predicted sentinel margin location of each observer versus the actual closest margin distance at pathology demonstrated best correlation between fluorescence and pathology (R2 = 0.98), with surgeon (R2 = 0.75). Principal Conclusion: Fluorescence imaging can improve identification of the sentinel margin in head and neck cancer resections, holding promise for rapid identification of positive margins and improved oncological outcomes. ER -