Autofluorescence spectroscopy of ocular tissues
Research type
Research Study
Full title
High resolution autofluorescence spectroscopic characterisation of histological specimens of normal and abnormal ocular tissue
IRAS ID
189293
Contact name
Jeremy Prydal
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
In the general population, approximately 6% will have an ocular naevi (sometimes referred to as a mole) at the back of their eye. One in every 500 ocular naevi will become a malignant melanoma (similar to the skin cancer called melanoma) and up to 20% of patients will have a metastasis (spread to other organs) at diagnosis with a 5-year survival rate of less than 30%. Early diagnosis reduces the death rate and may allow both the eye and vision to be saved. It is very difficult to differentiate ocular neavi from small melanomas with no current ‘gold standard’ test.
Autofluorescence is the light emitted from a substance after it has absorbed light. Natural autofluorescence of tissues provides a potentially rich source of information. 'Naked-eye' broadband autofluorescence is already exploited during endoscopy tests to detect various tumours. Autofluorescence techniques are also known to be a safe and important tool for ophthalmologists for a wide range of conditions, but they do not improve the diagnosis of ocular melanoma.
We have used high-resolution autofluorescence spectrometry of biological specimens and distinguished different species of microorganism and malignant skin melanoma from skin naevi (moles) and normal skin.
It is hypothesised that more high-resolution autofluorescence characteristics of ocular tissue will allow for highly sensitive and specific real-time detection of cancerous lesions during ocular examination.The aim of this study is to perform high-resolution spectroscopic examination of histological specimens of ocular tissue. Characterising normal ocular tissue and subsequently matching the spectroscopic fingerprints of abnormal tissue to the histopathological diagnosis will allow the production of a library of reference data that can be exploited to develop an ocular imaging device for the detection of early ocular melanoma.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EM/0168
Date of REC Opinion
26 Apr 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion