Tongue Cancer Detection: Can Ultrasound Elastography Make a Difference?

Intraoral ultrasonography is a type of imaging method used to visualize the inside of the mouth, including the tongue. It can help to identify lesions. Strain elastography is a technique used with Intraoral ultrasonography that assesses the stiffness of tissues, potentially offering additional insights into the nature of tongue lesions. Together, they provide a less invasive way to characterize tongue lesions, which could improve the detection and characterization of tongue carcinoma. The combination aims to offer a promising avenue for early diagnosis, which is crucial for successful treatment. It allows for the differentiation between normal tissues and cancerous lesions, which is challenging with traditional methods like visual exams and palpation.

Strain elastography is significant because it can potentially improve the accuracy of diagnosing tongue cancer. Cancerous tissues tend to be stiffer than normal tissues, and Strain elastography measures this difference in stiffness. By using Intraoral ultrasonography with strain elastography, doctors can gain additional insights into the nature of tongue lesions. This is important because early detection of tongue cancer is crucial for effective treatment. The technique assesses tissue deformation to create a visual representation of tissue stiffness, which can help distinguish between benign and cancerous lesions.

The study utilized Intraoral ultrasonography combined with Strain elastography by using a linear 14 MHz transducer to perform strain elastography on two patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the tongue. The procedure involved applying gentle compression and decompression to the tongue using the ultrasound probe, monitoring tissue strain over time using a strain graph, using integrated software to measure quantitative strain (%) within regions of interest (ROIs), and comparing strain measurements between normal tissues and lesions. The researchers were able to measure the strain in the normal tongue tissue and cancerous lesions and compare them.

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is a type of cancer that can affect the tongue. The study found that the average strain in normal tongue tissue was significantly higher than in tongue SCC, indicating that cancerous tissues were indeed stiffer. In one patient, the average strain of normal tissue was 1.468% compared to 0.000% in the SCC. Similar results were observed in the second patient, with normal tissue showing a strain of 1.007% and SCC showing 0.000%. This means that the cancerous tissues showed less deformation under pressure compared to normal tissue, confirming the principle that cancerous tissues are generally stiffer. This finding is important because it supports the potential of Strain elastography, in conjunction with Intraoral ultrasonography, to distinguish between cancerous and normal tissues.

While the study only involved two patients, the results suggest that Strain elastography, when used with Intraoral ultrasonography, is a promising technique for the early detection and characterization of tongue cancer. The implication is that this combined approach could lead to earlier and more accurate diagnoses. This preliminary research aims to determine if this combined approach can differentiate between normal tissues and cancerous lesions in the tongue, potentially leading to earlier and more accurate diagnoses. Further studies with larger sample sizes are needed to confirm these findings and assess the full potential of this technique. If successful, it could revolutionize how tongue cancer is diagnosed, offering a less invasive and more effective diagnostic tool.