Multimodal and multispectral diagnostic devices for oral and breast cancer screening in low resource settings

Abstract

Conventional cancer screening and diagnostic techniques are costly, time consuming, and available only in big city hospitals. Equipping these techniques in villages, local clinics, or small hospitals could significantly lower healthcare costs and patient's travel-time, making early cancer diagnosis and treatment accessible for masses. To accomplish this task, fast and dependable screening methods, such as multi-modal optical imaging and spectroscopic devices, are required. These techniques are non-contact, non-invasive/minimally invasive methods, have great potential for real time, and accurate diagnosis of cancer. Since these devices work in visible and near-visible range of electromagnetic spectra, it is also known as optical biopsy. This article provides a comprehensive overview of field-portable, multi-spectral and multi-modal devices such as auto-fluorescence imaging, fluorescence imaging and spectroscopy and micro-endoscopy-based point-of-care tools. These advancements have the potential to revolutionize the screening, real-time diagnosis, treatment and prevention of oral and breast cancer, enabling faster and more effective healthcare interventions. More specifically, the review largely focuses on oral and breast cancer diagnosis with different optical techniques, using low-cost devices. Further, convergence of technologies along with artificial intelligence and machine learning software can be used to analyse data.