Image processing analysis of oral cancer, oral potentially malignant disorders, and other oral diseases using optical instruments

Oral cancer screening is important for early detection and early treatment, which help improve survival rates. Biopsy is invasive and painful, while fluorescence visualization using optical instruments is non-invasive, convenient, and provides results in real time, and examinations can be repeated. The purpose of this study was to determine the usefulness of optical instruments in oral screening. A total of 314 patients who were examined using optical instruments at Tokyo Dental College between 2014 and 2018 were enrolled in this study. Fluorescence visualization images were analyzed using subjective and objective evaluations. Subjective evaluation for detecting oral cancer offered 98.0% sensitivity and 43.2% specificity. Regarding the objective evaluations for detecting oral cancer, sensitivity and specificity were 61.9% and 62.7% for mean luminance, 90.3% and 55.7% for luminance ratio, 56.5% and 67.7% for standard deviation of luminance, and 72.5% and 85.4% for coefficient of variation of luminance. Fluorescence visualization with subjective and objective evaluation using optical instruments is useful for oral cancer screening.