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This story is from the category Health
Date posted: 26/07/2012 Performing surgery to remove a brain tumor requires surgeons to walk a very fine line. If they leave tumor tissue behind, the tumor is likely to regrow; if they cut out too much normal tissue, they could cause permanent brain damage. "Primary brain tumors look just like brain tissue," says Keith Paulsen, PhD, a professor of biomedical engineering at Thayer School of Engineering and a member of the Cancer Imaging and Radiobiology Research Program at Norris Cotton Cancer Center. "But if you look at them under a particular kind of light, they look much different." To improve their ability to differentiate between tumor cells and healthy tissue, surgeons can have patients take an oral dose of the chemical 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA). An enzyme metabolizes ALA, producing the fluorescent protein protoporphyrin IX (PpIX). Tumor cells have a higher metabolic rate than normal cells, so they accumulate more PpIX -- and therefore fluoresce, or "glow," when exposed to blue light. See the full Story via external site: www.sciencedaily.com Most recent stories in this category (Health): 14/06/2013: Biochip Lab Breakthrough Allows Fast, Reliable Pathogen Identification |
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