Comprehensive multi-resolution pathology assessment with surface-tracked scanning

Surgeons rely primarily on visual and tactile feedback to distinguish between malignant and healthy tissue during an operation, a subjective process that may result in positive margins. More than 20 % of breast surgeries and nearly 40 % of head‑and‑neck resections yield positive margins—defined by tumor cells at the specimen surface—which are associated with inferior outcomes and may necessitate additional treatments (re-resection and/or adjuvant therapies). We hypothesize that for many solid tumors, comprehensive surface microscopy can be performed intraoperatively to rapidly identify positive margins that could spare a patient additional surgeries and/or adjuvant therapies.