Abstract
Primary brain tumors are highly lethal tumors where surgical resection is the primary treatment of choice. It has been shown that survival rate is directly related to the extent of tumor resection. In order to aid the surgeon in achieving near-complete resection, novel technologies are required. Time-resolved laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLIFS) promises to be one such technology, where the tissue is excited using an ultra-short laser and the corresponding fluorescence intensity decay is captured. Based on the fluorescence spectrum and the decay characteristics at various color bands from TRLIFS, differentiation of tumor from the normal brain tissue is possible in real-time. We built a portable TRLIFS system using custom optics and hardware (laser excitation: 355nm, 400ps pulse width, 5 uJ/pulse; PMT detector: Photek, rise time 80 picoseconds; digitizer: 7 Giga-samples per second) which is capable of providing the results in real time (every 50 milliseconds). We have designed a custom probe which is attached to a Roton sucker "Smart sucker" to collect the data during surgical resection from patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The histopathological diagnosis of the site under study with TRLIFS is confirmed with a biopsy and H-E staining. We will present our preliminary data from human brain tumor samples collected in-vivo. Our preliminary study shows that TRLIFS is capable of classifying low grade tumors with high sensitivity and specificity. This study will also demonstrate the potential of using the TRLIFS system to enhance the surgical instrumentation, aiding surgeons in near-complete excision of tumors and bringing these instruments into the next generation of smart tools.