Ge-Sb-Se glass fiber-optics for in-vivo mid-infrared optical biopsy

In the UK, it is now recognised that 1 in 2 people born after 1960 will develop some form of cancer during their lifetime. Diagnosing patients whilst in the early stages drastically improves their chances of survival but up until now the gold standard for cancer detection is via a lengthy excision biopsy procedure, which relies on the skill of a histopathologist. Evidently, the need for a faster solution is paramount. The mid-infrared (MIR) spectral region covers the wavelengths 3-25 μm and characteristic vibrational spectra unique to each molecular type. Subtle changes in the specific spectral response within this region are indicative of changes within the cells relative to normal cells, signifying the presence or absence of a disease. Our goal is to carry out disease diagnosis in vivo. Reaching these wavelengths has previously presented difficulties as conventional MIR blackbody light sources are weak and optical fibers for transmitting MIR light to/from tissue in vivo can be limited by strong material absorption such as silica glass >2.4 μm and tellurite, and heavy metal fluoride, >4.75 μm. However, chalcogenide glasses have been shown to transmit MIR light out to 25 μm. This paper reports on a glass composition in the Ge-Sb-Se system and its suitability as an optical fiber for the transmission of MIR to and from tissue samples, enabling in vivo mapping for an immediate diagnostic response- a technique termed ‘optical biopsy’.

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