Surgical therapy plays an important role in determining the outcome for patients with primary brain tumors. Total resection of tumors is associated with both longer survival and improved neurologic function. The goal at surgery is to remove as much of the tumor as safely possible. Primary brain tumors, such as gliomas, are infiltrating in nature and the tumor margins are often indistinct. Current imaging technologies for cancer detection in the central nervous system fail to accurately delineate the extent of infiltrating glial tumors.

The overall objective of this project is to research and engineer a new method for intraoperative diagnosis and demarcation of tumors margins. We investigate lifetime fluorescence techniques as potential new tool for enhancing the precision of the surgical resection of brain tumors. The project is in collaboration with Dr. Keith Black and Dr. Brian Pikul from the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute at Cedars-Sinai.

Our work enables in-vivo research of diseased brain tissues, obtain knowledge of cellular processes, and apply such knowledge to the development of new diagnosis and surgical techniques for medicine. While the current studies primarily address improved detection of brain cancer, this methodology will also serve as a paradigm for spectroscopic diagnosis/analysis of a variety of other cancers including but not limited to tumors in breast, gastrointestinal tract and lung.