Japanese researchers have developed a probe for ovarian cancer that can be sprayed onto tissue during surgery, fluorescing where malignant cells are present — allowing surgeons to identify and remove scattered bits of tumor within seconds or minutes, Nature News Blog reports.

Ovarian cancer has a tendency to spread, leaving small tumors of less than a millimeter in diameter throughout the abdominal cavity, which can be hard for surgeons to spot and remove. Being able to find all the malignant cells is crucial for a good survival outcome.

Next step: evaluate the probe using fresh tumor specimens from human patients, rather than in vitro cell lines, and working towards using it with gastric, colon, liver and uterine cancers.

Previous probes were administered through injection, which can take hours for effects to appear.

Ref.: Yasuteru Urano et al., Rapid Cancer Detection by Topically Spraying a γ-Glutamyltranspeptidase–Activated Fluorescent Probe, Sci Transl Med, 2011 [DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3002823]

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