This research is so simple and so beautiful I’m left wondering why hasn’t anyone done it before. If you were a surgeon wouldn’t you want to use a glowing marker dye that sticks to prostate cancer cells so you could see them clearly and remove them? Well, thanks to a study led by Oxford University , this is now possible. Cancer Research UK scientists from Oxford, including the departments of biomedicine engineering, have used a fluorescent dye attached to a special marker to give medics a “second pair of eyes” during surgery .
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK, with around 52,300 new cases every year. Twenty-three patients were injected with the dye before undergoing prostate removal surgery, and its beauty is that it finds areas of cancerous tissue not picked up other clinical methods. The dye helps surgeons to see the edges of the tumour and identify any clusters of cells that have spread into nearby pelvic tissues and lymph glands.
This guides the surgeon to remove all cancerous tissue and preserve healthy areas. It substantially reduces the chances of the cancer coming back and minimises the chances of complications. The dye and marker work by attaching themselves to the surface of prostate cancer cells.
As a first step, the 23 men diagnosed with prostate cancer were injected with the fluorescent dye. Next, surgeons used an imaging system devised by engineers led by Oxford’s Professor Borivoj Vojnovic that shines a special type of light making prostate cancer cells glow. For many patients in the study, the dye identified clusters of cells which had spread away from the tumour which couldn’t be seen by the naked eye.
Freddie Hamdy, Nuffield professor of surgery at Oxford University and lead author of the study, said: “We are giving the surgeon a second pair of eyes to see where the cancer cells are and if they have spread. It’s the first time we’ve managed to see such fine details of prostate cancer in real-time during surgery.” He describes how all the cancer cells can be stripped away with this technique, including cells that have spread.
And healthy tissue can be preserved reducing life-changing side effects like incontinence and erectile dysfunction. Prof Vojnovic said: “Prostate surgery is life-changing. We want patients to leave knowing we have done everything possible to eradicate cancer and give them the best quality of life afterwards.
I believe this technique makes that possibility a reality.” Stunning..
