Ulrike Weyer

Mrs. Ulrike Weyer


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

2Years (2025-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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10 May 2025 in Cancers
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
ABAyman Bali
Ayman Bali
SWSaskia Wolter
Saskia Wolter
DPDaniela Pelzel
Daniela Pelzel
UWUlrike Weyer
Ulrike Weyer
Tiago AzevedoTiago Azevedo
Tiago Azevedo
DPDavid Pertzborn
David Pertzborn
Background: Accurate and rapid intraoperative tumor margin assessment remains a major challenge in surgical oncology. Current gold-standard methods, such as frozen section histology, are time-consuming, operator-dependent, and prone to misclassification, which limits their clinical utility. Objective: To develop and evaluate a novel hyperspectral imaging (HSI) workflow that integrates deep learning with three-dimensional (3D) tumor modeling for real-time, label-free tumor margin delineation in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Methods: Freshly resected HNSCC samples were snap-frozen and imaged ex vivo from multiple perspectives using a standardized HSI protocol, resulting in a 3D model derived from HSI. Each sample was serially sectioned, stained, and annotated by pathologists to create high-resolution 3D histological reconstructions. The volumetric histological models were co-registered with the HSI data (n = 712 Datacubes), enabling voxel-wise projection of tumor segmentation maps from the HSI-derived 3D model onto the corresponding histological ground truth. Three deep learning models were trained and validated on these datasets to differentiate tumor from non-tumor regions with high spatial precision. Results: This work demonstrates strong potential for the proposed HSI system, with an overall classification accuracy of 0.98 and a tumor sensitivity of 0.93, underscoring the system’s ability to reliably detect tumor regions and showing high concordance with histopathological findings. Conclusion: The integration of HSI with deep learning and 3D tumor modeling offers a promising approach for precise, real-time intraoperative tumor margin assessment in HNSCC. This novel workflow has the potential to improve surgical precision and patient outcomes by providing rapid, label-free tissue differentiation.