In cancer surgery, taking out every last bit of a tumour improves a patient's prognosis. By targeting glowing proteins to cancer cells and illuminating them with magnetic resonance and fluorescence imaging, researchers have succeeded in completely removing tumours in mice, increasing survival rates.
Roger Tsien and his team at the University of California, San Diego, injected tumour-bearing mice with a fluorescently tagged cell-penetrating peptide linked to a neutralizing peptide. Enzymes common in tumours cleaved the two peptides, releasing the tagged one and allowing it to infiltrate tumour cells (pictured left). After cutting out the tumour (large arrow, right), the team was able to spot the remaining cancer cells (small arrow).
On average, the enhanced visibility allowed the researchers to remove 90% more residual cancer cells than when they didn't use the marker. Tumour-free survival rates increased by 50–500%, depending on the cancer type.
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Molecular imaging: Tumour glows out. Nature 463, 1002 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/4631002d
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/4631002d
