Non-invasive Preoperative Tissue Evaluation in Head and Neck Tumor Patients Using Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography (MSOT)

Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography (MSOT) is a promising imaging technology that utilizes pulsed laser light. One of the key capabilities of this technology is measuring oxygenation within human tissue. This proposed study aims to investigate possible limitations of human tissue used for reconstructive surgery due to flawed tissue perfusion.

Healthy volunteers as well as patients with a diagnosed head and neck cancer entity will be recruited. Both cohorts will then be scanned on different body areas (most common tissue sites used for reconstructive surgery on the back, arms and legs) to assess differences in muscle oxygenation between the healthy and tumor patient cohort using MSOT.

The hypothesis of the study is, that patients with diagnosed head and neck cancer entities are prone to compromised tissue perfusion due to a high prevalence of smoking within the head neck tumor patient cohort and therefore perfusion restirciting diseases e.g. peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD).