Intraoperative assessment of non-melanoma skin cancer margins using NIRF probes.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The incidence of skin cancer is increasing rapidly in the US. In 1994, there were around 1 million cases of non-melanoma skin cancer per year; this number had grown to more than 4 million by 2011. Many of these tumorsappear in areas of the body that are exposed to sunlight (face, hands, etc.), where cosmetic considerations require minimizing resection of normal tissue. More generally, however, successful skin surgery requires the complete removal of diseased tissue while minimizing removal of healthy tissues. While standard surgical approaches may remove more healthy tissue than necessary or fail to remove all cancerous tissue, Mohs Micrographic Surgery (MMS) can achieve the above requirements, offering improved outcomes, lower chances of disease recurrence, better cosmetic results and minimal removal of healthy tissue compared to standard surgical approaches. However, MMS is time-consuming, has low patent throughput, requires specialized clinical training and on-si