Imaging System Lets Doctors 'See' Cancer During Surgery (HealthDay)

TUESDAY, Aug. 19 (HealthDay News) -- A new imaging system thathighlights cancerous tissue makes it easier for surgeons to detect andremove tumors without harming surrounding healthy tissue, according toU.S. researchers.

The fluorescence-assisted resection and exploration (FLARE)system --which consists of a near-infrared (NIR) imaging system, a videomonitor and a computer -- shows particular promise for improving surgeryfor breast, prostate and lung cancers. In advanced stages, the boundariesof these cancers can be difficult to define. FLARE may also help cancersurgeons avoid cutting important structures such as blood vessels andnerves.

Patients are injected with special dyes (NIR fluorphores) that targetspecific structures such as cancer cells. When exposed to NIR light, thedyes light up the cancer cells, which appear on a video monitor.

Details about the development and early clinical trials of the newsystem were to be presented Aug. 19 at the national meeting of theAmerican Chemical Society, in Philadelphia.

"This technique is really the first time that cancer surgeons can seestructures that are otherwise invisible, providing true image-guidedsurgery. If we're able to see cancer, we have a chance of curing it,"project director Dr. John Frangioni, co-director of the Center for ImagingTechnology and Molecular Diagnostics at Beth Israel Deaconess MedicalCenter in Boston, said in an ACS news release.

In preliminary trials, the researchers used FLARE to visualize organsand body fluids of mice and map the lymph nodes of pigs, all in real time.The first human clinical trials, which may begin this summer, will involvemapping the lymph nodes of breast cancer patients.

Currently, cancer surgeons have no clear way to determine in real-timewhether they've removed all of a patient's cancerous tissue.

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