The major challenge of the current cancer surgery is the inability to remove all existing tumor. Surgeons rely on presurgical imaging, intraoperative visualization/palpation, and experience to optimize tumor removal. In cases of uncertainty, biopsies are taken and sent to the pathology lab, and the surgical team will wait for the result, which may take thirty minutes or longer to return. Here we introduce an intraoperative image-guiding system of
identifying tissues in cancer surgery: a portable visible/near-infrared camera system was designed to help surgeons visualize cancerous tumors intraoperatively; a hand-held spectroscopic device, together with a nanofluorophore - indocyanine green as imaging contrast agent, was developed as a tool for intraoperative tissue diagnosis. With the spectral analysis of the nanofluorophore in the tissues of interest, our device can help to diagnose the tissue properties in the surgery: the cancerous tissues show at least two times stronger fluorescence than the normal tissues do. This method provides a quick (< 1 sec) diagnosis of cancer intraoperatively.