Comparison of Endoscopic Visualization and CT Imaging of Head and Neck Cancers With Pathological Validation Study

The purpose of this clinical research is to compare new methods of identifying the locations of tumours to standard CT imaging. Analysis of the tissue removed during surgery (pathology) will be used to determine which method is more accurate. Accurately identifying the locations of tumours is especially important for radiation therapy, where the radiation needs to cover the entire tumour while minimizing the amount normal tissue that is exposed to radiation. The new method uses optical imaging (endoscopy) that can be mapped to the CT imaging using device tracking technologies. CT imaging is used to create the radiation treatment plans and so tumour locations are normally provided by CT images. The advantage of the new technology that is being tested is that it may be able to locate regions of a tumour that are at the surface of the tissue. These tumours are difficult to see using CT imaging but easy to see using optical imaging. Currently, there is no accurate way of mapping the optical imaging to the CT images used in radiation therapy. This study will enable the investigators to test the new optical imaging by comparing the tumour that the investigators identify using CT imaging alone against using CT imaging plus the optical imaging technology. The results from this imaging will be compared to pathology findings.