Confocal laser endomicroscopy and confocal microscopy for head and neck cancer imaging: Recent updates and future perspectives

Adrien Villard, Ingrid Breuskin, Odile Casiraghi, Safaa Asmandar, Corinne Laplace-Builhe, Muriel Abbaci, Antoine Moya Plana

    Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

    20 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE) is a promising technology that provides real-time histological visualization of living tissue, described as “optical biopsy”. It has been used successfully in dermatology, gastroenterology and ophthalmology for clinical diagnosis and tumor margin assessment. In addition to in vivo tissue assessment, confocal microscopy can also be used ex vivo on freshly excised or fixed tissue for intraoperative tumor margin assessment. While CLE and ex vivo confocal microscopy (EVCM) have shown promising results for the identification of head and neck cancers at cell level, several methodological issues need to be addressed before they can be widely used in routine clinical use. The present review will focus on recent advances in CLE and EVCM in the diagnosis and management of head and neck cancer and discuss remaining challenges for their clinical application.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number105826
    JournalOral Oncology
    Volume127
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2022

    Keywords

    • Confocal laser endomicroscopy
    • Ex vivo confocal microscopy
    • Fluorescence
    • Head and neck cancer
    • Optical biopsy
    • Reflectance
    • Squamous Cell Carcinoma

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