Glowing brains

Any technique that makes the brain glow is cool by me, especially if it helps save lives.

A new technique that causes brain tumours to fluoresce results in more complete removal of the tumour and in improved progression-free survival, report German researchers in the May issue of The Lancet Oncology...
The brain tumours, known as malignant gliomas, have a poor prognosis despite the range of treatments currently available, and investigators have suggested that the poor results during surgery could be because it is difficult to see where the tumour stops and healthy tissue starts, making complete removal difficult. "Traditional techniques used for improving resections have not fulfilled expectations (frameless stereotaxy) or are still too expensive and cumbersome (intraoperative MRI) to have been put to broad scale use", notes Dr Stummer.