{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,26]],"date-time":"2026-08-26T14:54:15Z","timestamp":1787756055734,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":25,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,14]],"date-time":"2026-04-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1776124800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Med."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Autofluorescence (AF) imaging is a promising non-invasive tool for skin cancer diagnostics. However, AF intensity alone often fails to reliably delineate tumor boundaries due to strong influence from melanin, keratin, vasculature, and surface scattering. AF photobleaching kinetics provide an additional functional contrast linked to endogenous fluorophore content and environment microstructure, but their diagnostic potential in clinical skin cancer imaging remains underexplored.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>To investigate the photobleaching phenomenon, we analyzed AF and photobleaching behavior in 84 histologically confirmed lesions, including 53 sporadic basal cell carcinomas (BCC), 25 BCCs associated with nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome (NBCCS, also known as Gorlin syndrome), and 6 squamous cell carcinomas (SCC). Continuous narrow band LED 405 nm excitation for 20 s enabled pixel-wise fitting of exponential decay curves, generating photobleaching parameter maps describing bleaching amplitude (A), decay constant (\u03c4), and residual component (C).<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Across all tumor types, lesions consistently exhibited lower initial AF, reduced photobleaching amplitude, and faster \u03c4 compared to surrounding skin. A key qualitative finding was a systematic mismatch between lesion boundaries seen in AF intensity versus boundaries revealed by A and \u03c4 maps, suggesting that photobleaching parameters capture deeper or structurally distinct tissue alterations not visible in steady-state AF emission imaging. NBCCS-associated BCCs showed more homogeneous A\/\u03c4 patterns than sporadic tumors, while SCC lesions demonstrated coarse, irregular \u03c4 distributions distinct from BCC.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>These observations indicate that photobleaching kinetics provide biologically meaningful contrast and may improve non-invasive tumor characterization, with potential relevance for early diagnosis and surgical margin assessment.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fmed.2026.1773895","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,14]],"date-time":"2026-04-14T04:21:59Z","timestamp":1776140519000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Photobleaching-based autofluorescence mapping reveals distinct patterns in sporadic basal cell carcinoma, nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome-associated basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Emilija V.","family":"Plorina","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Science and Technology, Institute of Atomic Physics and Spectroscopy, University of Latvia","place":["Riga, Latvia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ilze","family":"Lihacova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Science and Technology, Institute of Atomic Physics and Spectroscopy, University of Latvia","place":["Riga, Latvia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mehdi","family":"Boostani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dermatology, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center","place":["Buffalo, NY, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Szabolcs","family":"Bozs\u00e1nyi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Dermatooncology, Semmelweis University","place":["Budapest, Hungary"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Norbert","family":"Kiss","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Science and Technology, Institute of Atomic Physics and Spectroscopy, University of Latvia","place":["Riga, Latvia"]},{"name":"Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Dermatooncology, Semmelweis University","place":["Budapest, Hungary"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dmitrijs","family":"Bliznuks","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Applied Computer Systems, Riga Technical University","place":["Riga, Latvia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marta","family":"Skrastina","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Science and Technology, Institute of Atomic Physics and Spectroscopy, University of Latvia","place":["Riga, Latvia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alexey","family":"Lihachev","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Science and Technology, Institute of Atomic Physics and Spectroscopy, University of Latvia","place":["Riga, Latvia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"913","DOI":"10.1038\/jid.2012.431","article-title":"Trends in basal cell carcinoma incidence rates: a 37-year Dutch observational study","volume":"133","author":"Flohil","year":"2013","journal-title":"J Invest 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