Researchers from Mass General Brigham in Somerville, MA, and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston have developed a new imaging technique for distinguishing tumors from normal tissue.
The technique, called fluorescence lifetime (FLT) imaging, combines an injectable dye (indocyanine green, or ICG) with high-speed cameras, the group explained. The group's results were published October 16 in Nature Biomedical Engineering.
A team led by Anand Kumar, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital tested the technique on multiple cancer types from 60 patients, including liver, brain, tongue, skin, breast, bone, and soft tissue, and showed a 97% accuracy in differentiating tumor tissue from healthy tissue.
Kumar and colleagues noted that, although ICG is cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for other indications, it is not yet cleared as a tumor marking agent. Their next step is to undertake larger-scale clinical trials that will test the safety and efficacy of fluorescence lifetime imaging with ICG to identify tumors.
"Our work suggests that the combination of fluorescence lifetime imaging with ICG could improve surgical resections, thereby impacting patient lives," Kumar. "We’re excited to take these next steps to move our discoveries closer to clinical impact."
