Despite advances in microsurgery, it can still be difficult to tell if a skin cancer has been entirely removed without a follow up biopsy, which could require a patient to come back for a second operation.<\/p>\n
But what if the biopsy could be performed noninvasively as part of the initial procedure, so the surgeon would know immediately whether additional cancerous tissue needed to be removed?<\/p>\n
A novel optical device to do just that moved a step closer to commercialization recently. LighTopTech<\/a>, a University of Rochester spinoff, was one of 10 startups to advance to the next phase of a competition sponsored by the accelerator Luminate<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our first outside investment,\u201d says company president Cristina Canavesi. She co-founded LighTopTech in 2013 with her PhD advisor, Jannick Rolland<\/a>, the Brian J. Thompson Professor of Optical Engineering at the University. Rolland is the company\u2019s chief technology officer.<\/p>\n
Rolland first conceived of the idea for the device 11 years ago after experiencing a biopsy and learning about the risks involved. About the same time, a technique called optical coherence tomography was coming into wide use to obtain images inside tissues.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it really connected the dots,\u201d Rolland says. \u201cIf we could do an optical biopsy noninvasively it would eliminate the risks. The (OCT) images were kind of low resolution and noisy, so my first goal was to produce images of a higher definition.\u201d<\/p>\n