Characterising ovarian cancer morphology and response to chemotherapy using fluorescence confocal endomicroscopy

Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed late, and the assessment of its response to chemotherapy typically takes several months using current methods. Utilising a novel probe-based fluorescence confocal endomicroscopy (FCE) approach, we have 1) established the most appropriate exogenous contrast agent for use in this setting, 2) demonstrated that cell attrition and morphological changes caused by platinum-based chemotherapy treatment can be tracked via this technique, 3) characterised the morphological differences between normal and cancerous ovarian epithelium, and 4) shown that the FCE imaging system can detect 5-aminolevulinic acid-induced protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) autofluorescence from in vitro ovarian cancer cell lines and ex vivo small cell lung cancer tissue. It is expected that FCE may play a role in morphological and functional imaging for the early diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer.