Physicians use various imaging technologies to screen, diagnose and follow cancerous tumours. The information they provide will show the gross location and extent of the tumour. However, cancer surgeons today operate “blind” with no clear way of determining in real-time whether they have removed all of the diseased tissue, which is the key to successful surgery.

Researchers in Massachusetts now report development and early clinical trials of a new imaging system that highlights cancerous tissue in the body so that surgeons can more easily see and remove diseased tissue with less damage to normal tissue near the tumor. The study is funded primarily through a Bioengineering Research Partnership from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

• Dr. John Frangioni, M.D., Ph.D., attending physician and Associate Professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine and Associate Professor of Radiology in the Department of Radiology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.  He is Associate Professor of Medicine and an Associate Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School.