We report the development and the pre-clinical testing of a manual scanning OCT-based probe for core needle biopsy guidance. While stereotactic radiography, ultrasound, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging are used to guide needle placement within a tumor, the optical probe provides the radiologist with the capability to examine tissue cellularity at the tip of the biopsy needle. The capability to investigate tissue cellularity prior to taking the biopsy could help reduce the number of non-diagnostic biopsies and increase the amount of viable tumor tissue within the biopsy core. This last aspect is very important in the new era of personalized cancer therapy, because greater tissue quantity is needed for various biomarker assays. This technology has been evaluated by us on a rabbit model of soft tissue cancer. Our results indicate the capability of this OCT-based probe for determining the in situ cellularity of the tissue at the tip of the biopsy needle.
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