Lighting up tumours could help surgeons remove them more precisely

A new technique that combines highly detailed, real-time images of inside the body with a type of infrared light has, for the first time, been used during surgery to differentiate between cancerous tumours and healthy tissue. The pioneering technique, demonstrated in mice, has been developed by engineers at the Wellcome/EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences (WEISS) at UCL and surgeons at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). Researchers say the development could have implications for treating neuroblastoma, which is the most common form of solid cancer tumour, other than brain tumours, found in children. Standard treatment typically involves surgery to completely remove cancerous cells, which can be difficult to see as they look similar to the surrounding healthy tissue. For the study, published in Cancer Research, scientists at UCL and GOSH used a technique called 'molecular imaging' during surgery, where chemicals are injected into the bloodstream to act as imaging probes. These chemicals are attracted to cancerous cells in the body, and once attached, the probes light up through a process called 'fluorescence', which in turn lights up the tumour. The technique, used during preclinical testing in mice, successfully revealed part of a tumour that had not been removed during surgery.