Probe can distinguish cancer cells from healthy brain in surgery

The advance, from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (The Neuro), part of Montreal’s McGill University and the McGill University Health Centre, and Polytechnique Montréal, has led to the creation of a new probe that can be used during surgery for detecting cancer cells.

For the first time, the hand-held Raman spectroscopy probe enables surgeons to accurately detect virtually all invasive brain cancer cells in real time during surgery. The probe is claimed to be superior to existing technology and could set a new standard for successful brain cancer surgery.

‘Often it is impossible to visually distinguish cancer from normal brain, so invasive brain cancer cells frequently remain after surgery, leading to cancer recurrence and a worse prognosis,’ said Dr Kevin Petrecca, chief of neurosurgery and brain cancer researcher at The Neuro, and co-senior author of the study published in Science Translational Medicine . ‘Surgically minimising the number of cancer cells improves patient outcomes.’