Fluorescence Spectroscopy Guided Surgery

Intraoperative surgical fluorescence microscopy is a useful technique for the surgical resection of glioma. However the accuracy of this method is limited by its too low sensitivity. Fluorescence spectroscopy has the potential capacity to overcome the current limitations of conventional fluorescence guided surgery by increasing the sensitivity: in a pilot study on brain tumor biopsies, fluorescence spectroscopy was shown to measure two-peaked 5-ALA-induced protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) fluorescence emission spectrum which clearly enables to distinguish the solid component of glioblastomas from low grade gliomas and infiltrative component of glioblastomas. This innovative method could become in future a useful tool for real-time diagnosis of brain lesions (initial diagnosis or follow-up post resection to check for residual dysplasia) and real-time assessment of resections margins during surgery. However, those preliminary ex-vivo results have to be confirmed in a feasibility in-vivo study on human.