‘Lit up’ tumour cells may aid cancer surgery
The technique allowed doctors to spot previously undetectable ovarian tumours just one tenth of a millimetre across. Scientists hope it will dramatically improve success rates in tricky cancer operations.
Clusters of ovarian tumour cells smaller than around three millimetres are often missed by surgeons using traditional methods, which rely on vision and touch.
Professor Philip Low, from Purdue University in West Lafayette, US, who invented the new technology, said: “Ovarian cancer is notoriously difficult to see, and this technique allowed surgeons to spot a tumour 30 times smaller than the smallest they could detect using standard techniques.
“By dramatically improving the detection of the cancer — by literally lighting it up — cancer removal is dramatically improved.”
The research is published yesterday in the journal Nature Medicine.
Prof Low’s team attached a fluorescent label to a modified form of folic acid which binds to ovarian cancer cells. Patients were injected with the combination molecule two hours before surgery.
A special camera system was used to illuminate the cancer cells and display them as green glowing patches on a monitor screen.
The trials, involving four patients with an average age of 61, took place at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
Chief surgeon Professor Gooitzen van Dam said: “I think this technology will revolutionise surgical vision. I foresee it becoming a new standard in cancer surgery in a very short time.”
Even if the cancer cannot be removed completely, minimising what is left improves the chances of success with other strategies, such as chemo or immunotherapy.
This is especially true for ovarian cancer.
