Machine learning combined with multispectral infrared imaging to guide cancer surgery

Surgical tumor removal remains one of the most common procedures during cancer treatment, with about 45% of cancer patients undergoing this surgery at some point. Thanks to recent progress in imaging and biochemical technologies, surgeons are now better able to tell tumors apart from healthy tissue. Specifically, this is enabled by a technique called "fluorescence-guided surgery" (FGS). In FGS, the patient's tissue is stained with a dye that emits infrared light when irradiated with a special light source. The dye preferentially binds to the surface of tumor cells, so that its light-wave emissions provide information on the location and extent of the tumor.