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By IANS
A drink containing a compound that shines tumor cells has helped British surgeons safely detect and eliminate brain cancer.
Research was conducted on patients suspected of having glioma, the most common form of brain cancer.
Treatment usually involves surgery to remove as much cancer as possible, but surgeons may have difficulty identifying all cancer cells while avoiding healthy brain tissue.
As part of an essay presented at the 2018 National Cancer Research Institute At the Cancer Conference (NCRI) in Glasgow, researchers said that the use of the Fluorescent markers helped surgeons distinguish the most aggressive cancer cells from other brain tissues and that they hoped this would ultimately improve patient survival.
"We wanted to see if using a fluorescent marker could help surgeons objectively identify high-grade tumor cells during surgery, allowing them to remove as many cancers as possible. leaving intact normal brain tissue, "said Kathreena Kurian of the University of Bristol, who presented the research.
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Researchers used a compound called 5-aminolevulinic acid or 5-ALA, which turns pink when a light is on.
Previous research has shown that when consumed, 5-ALA accumulates in rapidly growing cancer cells, which means that it can act as a fluorescent marker for high-grade cells.
The study involved patients suspected of having a high-grade glioma. treated at Royal Liverpool Hospital, Kings College Hospital London or Adenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, UK.
They were between 23 and 77 years old and the average (median) age was 59 years old.
Before undergoing surgery to remove their brain tumors, a drink containing 5-ALA was administered to each patient.
Surgeons then used operating microscopes to help them search for fluorescent tissue while removing brain tumors from patients.
The tissues collected were sent to the pathology laboratory where scientists were able to confirm the accuracy of surgeons' work
In total, 99 patients received the 5-ALA marker and could be evaluated to detect signs of fluorescence.
In the course of their operations, surgeons found fluorescence in 85 patients. Pathologists subsequently confirmed that 81 of them were suffering from a high grade disease. Another had low-grade disease and three others could not be badessed.
Of 14 patients for whom the surgeons saw no fluorescence, only seven tumors could subsequently be evaluated by pathology, but in all these cases the low grade disease was confirmed.
"Neurosurgeons must be able to distinguish tumor tissue from other brain tissues, especially when the tumor contains high-growth, fast-growing cancer cells," said Colin Watts of the University of Birmingham , who led the study.
"This is the first prospective trial demonstrating the benefits of using 5-ALA to improve the accuracy of high-grade glioma diagnosis during surgery.These results show that the marker is very good. to indicate the presence and location of high grade gliomas, grade cancer cells, "Watts added.
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