S124 reflectance confocal microscopy for oral tongue cancer surgery: a feasibility study

Introduction: Margin status following surgery for oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) is an important prognostic factor and frequently affects decisions regarding postoperative management. Frozen section analysis is the only currently available technique to determine whether an adequate resection has been performed. However, this method is influenced by sampling bias, is time consuming, and varies widely from surgeon to surgeon. Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) is a well established technology for noninvasive imaging of cellular and architectural detail using the backscatter of laser light. We hypothesize that RCM may offer surgeons a modality to scan the tumor bed in real-time for in vivo detection of residual microscopic tumor. As a prelude to in vivo use, we report an ex vivo feasibility study of RCM for margin assessment in OTSCC.