Towards high-accuracy noninvasive ocular melanoma imaging and prognostics

Ocular melanoma, albeit being rare, is an aggressive type of cancer, developing within the interior of a person's eye. Location of this malignant growth increases severity of this type of cancer. It commonly develops in the middle layer of the eye, referred to as uvea. Melanoma develops from melanocytes, with a 90% of cases observed in posterior uvea (choroid). Complications from this type of cancer include metastasis in the liver. To avoid such outcome and improve treatments we are proposing application of fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) to distinguish metastatic and non-metastatic melanomas. In the reported here preliminary study, we evaluate the system requirements for FLIM imaging of melanin-based tissues and structures.