New treatment approach to glioma

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A new imaging technique provides better surgical removal of gliomas, according to a clinical trial.
Malignant glioma is the most common cancer of the nervous system. It has a poor prognosis, despite treatment by surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. One problem is that is it is hard to remove all of the tumor.

Researchers in Germany now report on a new way of visualizing the tumor within an operation so that more of it can be taken away. This involves giving the patient a compound called 5-ALA which leads to the accumulation of porphyrins, which are fluorescent, in the tumor. Modification of a standard neurosurgical operating microscope means that this fluorescence within the tumor can be used as a guide as to its margins.

In a study of 270 patients treated with either 5-ALA or with conventional surgery, six month progression-free survival in the first group was 41 per cent compared to 21 per cent in the second group. The fluorescence-guided technique also lead to a small - but not significant - increase in survival time.

Source
American Association of Neurological Surgeons meeting 18th April 2005