Lasers can be used for quicker cancer analysis, research suggests

A study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering has indicated that lasers could be used to help surgeons analyse brain cancers at a faster rate in order to determine how much tissue should be removed.

Conducted by the University of Michigan Medical School and Harvard University, the study examined the use SRS microscopy laser technology on 260 patients with brain cancer.

Currently, one of the problems associated with operating on brain cancers is risk that too little tissue could be taken out leading to a relapse of the cancer, or too much, meaning the removal of essential brain tissue which risks disability.

The use of SRS involves firing a beam of light at the tissue, which the responding laser-light's properties change depending on the differing chemistry of a cancerous cell and normal brain tissue helping surgeons find the outside edge of a tumour.

Daniel A. Orringer, M.D. assistant professor of neurosurgery at the University of Michigan Medical School, explained: “By achieving excellent image quality in fresh tissues, we’re able to make a diagnosis during surgery. This eliminates the lengthy process of sending tissues out of the OR for processing and interpretation.

“Our technique may disrupt the intraoperative diagnosis process in a great way, reducing it from a 30-minute process to about three minutes. Initially, we developed this technology as a means of helping surgeons detect microscopic tumor, but we found the technology was capable of much more than guiding surgery.”