MEMS based Medical Endomicroscopes

Progress toward early diagnosis of cancer would have significant clinical benefits in reducing mortality or prolonging life in cancer patients; thus, there is an important unmet clinical need to image cellular features of cancer in vivo and in real-time to correlate pathological symptoms and underlying cells responsible for such symptoms.

In this article, we describe a review of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) scanners based endoscopic optical coherence tomography (OCT), confocal, two-photon (2P), and photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) imaging. These advanced optical imaging modalities can provide sub-cellular (micron-scale) resolution and deep tissue penetration to reveal both cells and molecular features for early cancer diagnosis, cancer staging, and surgical guidance.