Bulletin: Rendering The Invisible Visible In Real Time

One out of every 5 North Americans and 1 out of every 2 Australians will develop some form of skin cancer during their lifetime.

Surgical excision is the treatment of choice for most skin cancer. Melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, is more likely to recur or metastasize if the diseased tissue is not completely removed. Current practice is to remove a margin of healthy tissue from around the melanoma, but the limiting factor is the Inability of the dermatological surgeon to differentiate between normal and cancerous tissue. This leaves the decision of how much extra tissue to excise to the surgeon's judgment. The recent development of a real-time visual method of detection can potentially assist in the appropriate removal of cancerous tissues.

Properties of light
Visible light is described in terms of three main characteristics: intensity, wavelength and polarization. Humans perceive intensity as brightness and wavelength as colour, but only have a marginal sensitivity to the polarization of light. Historically, medical imaging has mirrored human vision, exploiting only intensity and wavelength.