A “MAGIC bullet” cancer treatment that will massively improve the effectiveness of tumour surgery could be available in just five years.
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Molecular imaging fills cancerous cells with dye, making them fluorescent in ultraviolet light so surgeons can easily identify and remove them.
British researchers said it could change the face of cancer treatment forever and was so simple it could be “practised by five-year-olds”.
Professor Matthew Bogyo, a biochemist at Stanford University in California, said: “Most people have no idea this stuff can be done. It sounds like science fiction, but we are less than a decade away from this becoming standard practice.”
In experiments breast cancer patients are hooked up to an intravenous drip that sends molecules of dye into blood. A small camera inserted into the chest shows cancer cells glowing bright green.
Currently, instruments are used to detect dyes that make the blood glow during transplant operations.
But lighting up the edges of a tumour in fluorescent colour makes it relatively straightforward to remove.
Highlighting the edges of a tumour can make it easier for surgeons to remove all cancer cellsProfessor Arnie Purushotham
Consultant surgeon Professor Arnie Purushotham, senior clinical adviser at Cancer Research UK, said: “This exciting new technology has tremendous potential.
“Highlighting the edges of a tumour can make it easier for surgeons to remove all cancer cells and only leave healthy tissue behind.
“And it could also help us monitor the shrinkage of tumours when drug treatments are given to cancer patients.”
The new treatment shows cancer cells like a white t shirt under UV light
The race for a cure comes as forecasts show half of us born from the early 1960s onwards will develop cancer at some point in our lives.
Clinical imaging expert Dr Daniel Bulte, of the University of Oxford, said: “Oncologists have shown pictures of a mouse whose tumour has been injected with dye.
"Thirty minutes later it is taken into surgery, the ultraviolet light is turned on and the cancer glows. You could teach a five-year-old to remove a tumour under those circumstances.
“You can’t tell a tumour from healthy cells but this is like someone wearing a white T-shirt in a nightclub. It is some of the most amazing stuff I have seen.”
The new treatment made cancer cells more obvious in lab mice
Prof Bogyo is working on chemical agents that target enzymes secreted by tumours. Light emitted by probes can be picked up by cameras that see infrared light penetrating skin and tissues.
A review of his research is published in Cell Chemical Biology.
Rachel Rawson, clinical nurse specialist at Breast Cancer Care, said: “These technologies could make it easier to identify all the cancerous breast tissue at one operation. This could mean a reduction in the number of women needing further invasive surgery at a time of huge anxiety.
“This technique has the potential to change the future of clinical practice.”
