Intraoperative Fluorescence-Guided Aspirate Tissue Monitoring of 5-ALA During Brain Tumor Surgery

Gliomas are tumors that occur in all ages; they include the most common malign primary central nervous system tumors in developed countries. Gliomas are often aggressive, and their recommended treatment is surgical resection and chemoradiation. Complete tumor removal is challenging because of diffuse cell growth and the proximity of functionally critical tissues. The current golden standard for intraoperative glioma detection is fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) using 5-ALA. In 5-ALA FGS the drug-induced fluorescence helps to visually detect tumor cells, which improves resection rates and delays tumor progression. Tumor cells are often left unnoticed because of visual obstacles or weak fluorescence, which may lead to local recurrence and reoperations. Surgical suction devices are routinely used to remove cancerous tissues, but so far, the analysis of the suction waste has not been used in near real-time tissue detection.