A tumour-specific fluorescent label has allowed surgeons to remove ovarian cancer tissue that would have appeared normal to the naked eye.

Credit: INST. BIOL. MED. IMAGING/TECHNICAL UNIV. MUNICH & HELMHOLTZ CENTRE MUNICH

About 85–95% of ovarian cancers express large numbers of receptors for the molecule folate. So Gooitzen van Dam at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, Vasilis Ntziachristos at the Technical University Munich in Germany and their colleagues tested a probe made up of folate bound to a fluorescent molecule. They injected ten patients with this label and used a special camera and light source (pictured) to 'light up' the cancer cells during surgery. Fluorescence appeared in patients with malignant tumours, but not in those with benign growths. Furthermore, five surgeons asked to identify tumour deposits in colour images detected more when aided by fluorescence.

Nature Med. 10.1038/nm.2472 (2011)