Neuroscientists Use Lightwaves to Improve Brain Tumor Surgery

Research conducted by the Innovation Institute at Henry Ford Hospital shows a promising method for identifying cancerous tissue during the surgical removal of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), one of the most common and deadliest types of brain tumors. GBM typically leaves neurosurgeons uncertain about successfully finding and removing the entire malignancy. This is because while some tumors have clearly defined edges that differentiate it from normal brain tissue, the edges of a GBM tumor are diffuse, blending into healthy tissue. The Henry Ford team set out to develop a highly efficient and inexpensive tool to distinguish normal brain tissue from both GBM and necrotic tissue in the operating room. The researchers chose the Raman spectroscopy (originally developed in 1930), which measures scattered light to provide a wavelength “signature” for the material being studied. It was only recently that the Raman spectroscopy was able to be condensed to fit on an intraoperative probe. Using 40 frozen sections of GBM tissue, the Henry Ford team used the Raman spectroscopy to identify normal brain matter, GBM and necrotic tissue with 99.5-percent accuracy. To read more about this study, click here.