Lighting Up Malignant Tissues Could Boost Precision of Surgical Removal

In most cases, the early discovery of cancer is directly tied to a patient’s chances of surviving the condition. Completely curing cancer may not be an option, but clinicians have several tools that allow them to kill off the majority of cancer cells and prevent them from spreading to healthy tissue.

Surgery is usually considered when a tumor is present in only one part of the body and can be surgically removed in all its entirety. This approach to cancer treatment tends to be seen as “curative” because it seeks to completely remove cancer cells from the body. In many cases, surgery can allow cancer patients to live a long time after their diagnosis without taking a significant hit to their quality of life.

Researchers from University College London and Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) have come up with a technique that can make cancer-removal surgery more effective by increasing the treatment’s precision and accuracy. They came up with a technique that allowed them to use infrared light to identify real-time and highly detailed images of the body’s interior to differentiate between healthy tissue and cancerous tumors.

The technique was developed by engineers from UCL’s Wellcome/EPSRC Center for Interventional and Surgical Sciences (WEISS) and surgeons at GOSH. It involves using chemicals that attach to cancerous cells and a process called fluorescence to light up the tumorous cells, thereby producing detailed images of the inside of the body.

The researchers then used short-wave infrared light (SWIR) to improve image quality. Since SWIR travels deeper into the tissue, the researchers were able to generate sharper images that allowed them to easily differentiate between healthy tissue and cancerous tumors.

According to the study, this technique of lighting up cancerous tissues could disrupt current treatments for common pediatric cancer neuroblastoma. This type of solid cancer tumor can be difficult to completely remove through surgery because the tumor and surrounding healthy tissue appear quite similar.

Dr. Stefano Giuliani, a consultant pediatric surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital and associate professor at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, says that neuroblastoma removal surgery “requires a delicate balance.” Doctors have to remove enough to keep the tumor from growing back but not too much that surrounding nerves, blood vessels, and organs are damaged. By lighting up tumors, this novel technique will grant surgeons an unprecedented level of accuracy and precision when they remove neuroblastoma tumors.

As surgeons improve their ability to remove all cancerous tissues during surgical procedures, the drugs made by specialized entities such as CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) could have a higher chance of mopping up any residual malignancies so that more patients can go into and stay in remission for longer.

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/CNSP

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