Intraoperative delineation of p16+ oropharyngeal carcinoma of unknown primary origin with fluorescence lifetime imaging: Preliminary report

Background This study evaluated whether fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIm), coupled with standard diagnostic workups, could enhance primary lesion detection in patients with p16+ head and neck squamous cell carcinoma of the unknown primary (HNSCCUP). Methods FLIm was integrated into transoral robotic surgery to acquire optical data on six HNSCCUP patients' oropharyngeal tissues. An additional 55‐patient FLIm dataset, comprising conventional primary tumors, trained a machine learning classifier; the output predicted the presence and location of HNSCCUP for the six patients. Validation was performed using histopathology. Results Among the six HNSCCUP patients, p16+ occult primary was surgically identified in three patients, whereas three patients ultimately had no identifiable primary site in the oropharynx. FLIm correctly detected HNSCCUP in all three patients (ROC‐AUC: 0.90 ± 0.06), and correctly predicted benign oropharyngeal tissue for the remaining three patients. The mean sensitivity was 95% ± 3.5%, and specificity 89% ± 12.7%. Conclusions FLIm may be a useful diagnostic adjunct for detecting HNSCCUP.