WMIS reveals new intraoperative imaging research
A workshop for intraoperative imaging including discussion about the most novel techniques in the discipline was recently conducted during the Congress of the World Molecular Imaging Society (WMIS) in Seoul, Korea. The workshop featured presentations on intraoperative and real-time use of laser light and light-emitting agents, CCD cameras and ultraminiaturized microscopes, the WMIS announced yesterday.
The workshop was organized by an international panel of researchers, including scientist and lung cancer surgeon Hyun Koo Kim, MD, PhD, of Korea University Guro Hospital, Michael F. Tweedle, PhD, of Ohio State University and James P. Basilion, MD, from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
“We are seeing an incredible emergence of tools for image-guided surgeries that will improve tumor resection and preserve normal tissues,” said Christopher H. Contag, 2015-2016 WMIS president and director of the Stanford Center for Photomedicine, in an official statement. “These technologies range from wide-field imaging tools that can visualize the entire surgical area, to hand-held microscopes that enable removal of residual cancer cells after most of the cancer has been resected. These approaches hold tremendous promise for breast preserving surgeries and precise resection of brain cancer, and many other diseases.”
The workshop included new research regarding real-time imaging of surgically resected tissue. In contrast to intraoperative image guidance, real-time imaging of resected tissues involves tableside histological imaging right in the surgical suite instead of surgeons and staff having to wait for sample testing in a separate department.
“We are hopeful that our technology can reduce the approximately 25 percent re-surgery rate in breast cancers,” added Basilion, who works in partnership with Go van Dam, MD, PhD, from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
Another study outlined advances in optical imaging of infectious disease. Applying laser light to targeted fluorescent agents provokes reactions at detectable wavelengths that can then be imaged with CCD cameras. Those cameras can then process the imaging data and cast information about cancer, bacteria and other biomarkers directly in the surgical line-of-sight. Cutting edge multi-channel veterinary operating rooms can detect multiple agents at contrasting wavelengths.
Additionally, the working group on translational intraoperative optical surgical navigation is leading an international front of clinical studies throughout Europe and the U.S. in the next five years involving nanomedicines and targeted antibodies, such as 5-ALA for surgical margins in the brain and ICG for sentinel lymph nodes in certain cancers.
“We also had significant presentations describing new tools for in vivo microscopic assessment of tumor margins and other biology,” said Tweedle in the release.
Phase II studies are expected to cultivate multi-site trial data on image-guided colorectal, head-and-neck and breast cancer surgeries in a matter of a few years.