Using Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy to Classify Tumor Tissue in Upper Gastrointestinal Cancers/Reply

Nazarian et al thank Liu and Yang for their interest in their article and for taking the time to express their points for discussion. They appreciate the opportunity to respond. Liu and Yang inquire as to whether the specimens in patients who had undergone neoadjuvant treatment were significantly different in their optical properties to those who had not. At this stage, they have not yet explored the wavelength characteristics when using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) on treatment-naive specimens vs those having undergone neoadjuvant treatment. The use of neoadjuvant therapy leads to the formation of scar tissue over healthy areas surrounding the tumor and therefore further evaluation of these patients in future studies will aid in classifying fibrosed tissue and improve the accuracy of margin assessment.