Intraoperative Indocyanine Green Fluorescence Enables Primary Tumor Localization and Treatment De-Escalation in SCCUP: A Case Report.
Nikhil Bellamkonda, Nitish Khurana, Eric Babajanian et al.
✦ AI-curated · Sources linked
Case in brief
A patient with squamous cell carcinoma of unknown primary presented with an enlarging neck mass, while diagnostic evaluation—including flexible laryngoscopy and imaging—had not identified the primary site. During transoral robotic surgery, intraoperative indocyanine green fluorescence localized a previously undetected oropharyngeal lesion. The tumor was precisely excised, providing a surgical treatment option in this case and potentially reducing reliance on definitive chemoradiation.
What made this case unusual
Intraoperative ICG fluorescence revealed an oropharyngeal primary that had not been detected during the diagnostic workup for SCCUP.
Diagnostic / clinical pearl
In this case, ICG-guided TORS helped localize an occult oropharyngeal primary when standard diagnostic evaluation had not identified the site.