Published in Physics World, 6 Sep 2013
Researchers in the US have developed a new technique to distinguish tumours from healthy tissue in the brain. Based on stimulated Raman-scattering microscopy, the technique could boost the success rate for the complete surgical removal of brain tumours.
Normal cancer surgery on the brain starts with a magnetic-resonance image to plan the operation and to predict the location of the tumour. However, during the surgical procedure it is largely up to the surgeon to determine which tissue is tumorous and which is healthy. Tumorous tissue often feels different and has a different colour. But the differences are slight and for this reason more than 75% of brain-cancer patients are thought to leave theatre with a less-than-optimal amount of their tumour eradicated. […]
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