Diagnosis and treatment of tissue

Abstract

A surgical method including positioning an optical probe within a tissue at a target location in a body of a patient; emitting electromagnetic radiation from the optical probe toward the tissue; and receiving a spectra at the optical probe; generating, based on the spectra, by a tissue classification system, a diagnosis classification indicative of a condition of the tissue and treating the tissue with a treatment modality selected based on the diagnosis classification. The spectra is generated by the tissue in response to the emitted electromagnetic radiation.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A surgical method comprising:
 positioning an optical probe within a tissue at a target location in a body of a patient;   emitting electromagnetic radiation from the optical probe toward the tissue;   receiving a spectra at the optical probe, wherein the spectra is generated by the tissue in response to the emitted electromagnetic radiation;   generating, based on the spectra, by a tissue classification system, a diagnosis classification indicative of a condition of the tissue and treating the tissue with a treatment modality selected based on the diagnosis classification.   
     
     
         2 . The surgical method of  claim 1 , wherein the treatment modality includes one or more of cryotherapy, photodynamic therapy, brachytherapy, high-intensity focused ultrasound, tissue ablation, laser ablation, radio frequency ablation, a vapor ablation; electrical current ablation, or a local drug delivery. 
     
     
         3 . The surgical method of  claim 1 , wherein the tissue classification system includes one or more of linear discriminant analysis, an artificial neural network, multiple logistic regression, or a support vector machine. 
     
     
         4 . The surgical method of  claim 1 , further comprising generating, based on the spectra, by the tissue classification system, a second diagnosis classification indicative of a condition of the tissue after treating the tissue. 
     
     
         5 . The surgical method of  claim 1 , wherein the spectra includes one or more of a scattering phenomenon, a shift phenomenon, or an absorption phenomenon. 
     
     
         6 . The surgical method of  claim 1 , wherein the spectra includes one or more of:
 an auto-fluorescence spectra generated from endogenous fluorophores in the tissue indicative of a presence of one or more of nicotinamide adenine dinucletide (NADH), flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), tryptophan, or collagen; or a diffuse reflectance spectra indicative of a shape or size of cells or an intracellular structure of the tissue.   
     
     
         7 . The surgical method of  claim 6 , wherein the diffuse reflectance spectra comprises a first normalized intensity distribution over a range of wavelengths indicative of a normal diagnostic classification and a second normalized intensity distribution over the range of wavelengths indicative of a malignant diagnostic classification. 
     
     
         8 . The surgical method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 generating an image of the target location; and   generating a visual display of the image of the target location and the diagnosis classification at the target location overlapping the image at the target location.   
     
     
         9 . The surgical method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 confirming, using the overlapping image, an existence of a cancer lesion or normal tissue at the target location.   
     
     
         10 . The surgical method of  claim 9 , further comprising determining, by the tissue classification system, a grade of the cancer lesion. 
     
     
         11 . The surgical method of  claim 8 , wherein the image comprises a magnetic resonance imaging image, an ultrasound image, a computed tomography image, a positron emission tomography image, or a multimodality image. 
     
     
         12 . The surgical method of  claim 10 , wherein the optical probe includes a biopsy element, the method further comprising deploying the biopsy element configured to biopsy the tissue at the target location responsive to the confirmation of the existence of the cancer lesion at the target location. 
     
     
         13 . The surgical method of  claim 1 , wherein the treatment modality is delivered by a treatment device integrated with the optical probe. 
     
     
         14 . A surgical system comprising:
 an optical probe positionable within a target location in a body of a patient, wherein the optical probe is operative to:
 emit electromagnetic radiation toward the target location, 
 receive a spectra by the optical probe from the target location; 
   a tissue classification system operative to receive the spectra from the optical probe and generate a diagnosis classification indicative of a condition of a tissue at the target location; and   a treatment device operative to apply a treatment modality to the tissue responsive to the diagnosis classification.   
     
     
         15 . The surgical system of  claim 14 , wherein the treatment modality includes one or more of cryotherapy, photodynamic therapy, brachytherapy, high-intensity focused ultrasound, tissue ablation, laser ablation, radio frequency ablation, a vapor ablation, electrical current ablation, or a local drug delivery. 
     
     
         16 . The surgical system of  claim 14 , wherein the optical probe and the treatment device are integrated with one another. 
     
     
         17 . The surgical system of  claim 16 , wherein the treatment device is operative to apply one or more of cryotherapy, photodynamic therapy, brachytherapy, high-intensity focused ultrasound, tissue ablation, laser ablation, radio frequency ablation, a vapor ablation, electrical current ablation, or a local drug delivery. 
     
     
         18 . The surgical system of  claim 15 , wherein the tissue classification system includes one or more of linear discriminant analysis, an artificial neural network, multiple logistic regression, or a support vector machine. 
     
     
         19 . The surgical system of  claim 15 , wherein the spectra includes auto-fluorescence spectra and the auto-fluorescence spectra is indicative of a presence of one or more of nicotinamide adenine dinucletide (NADH), flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), tryptophan, or collagen. 
     
     
         20 . The surgical system of  claim 14 , wherein the spectra includes diffuse reflectance spectra comprising a first normalized intensity distribution over a range of wavelengths indicative of a normal diagnostic classification and a second normalized intensity distribution over the range of wavelengths indicative of a malignant diagnostic classification.