Rapid, Label-Free, and Highly Sensitive Detection of Cervical Cancer With Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide and early detection of cervical cancer is crucial to improve the performance of treatment. Autofluorescence arising from cells and tissues can provide information of cellular energy metabolism. Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) can be used to detect the metabolism change indicating the development of precancer. In this study, cervical unstained tissue sections obtained from patients were detected by FLIM, which exhibited the cellular morphology features as clear as the pathology images without using fluorescence probes, and the average lifetime of normal tissue samples was consistently lower than that of precancerous or cancerous samples. The results indicate that FLIM is a rapid and label-free tool with high sensitivity and specificity to detect cervical cancer and precancer.