Lumicell- Experts are testing a new innovative imaging technology at Massachusetts General Hospital. The imaging technology can enhance the vision of residual metastatic cancerous cells, and thus enables the surgeons to remove most of the cancerous cells in the initial surgery.
Patients suffering from malignant mesothelioma go for surgical treatments with the hope of removal of most of the tumor. But, in reality, it is quite impossible to achieve cancer-free results in the first surgery. These poor results are because it is complicated to locate every tumor, mainly microscopic mesothelioma tumors.
Thus, patients needed to go through surgical treatment again after the first surgery to find and remove the residual mesothelioma tumor.
According to the press release by Lumicell, Inc. on April 10th, 2019, an in vivo imaging technology is tested out in a feasible study at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The main objective of this study is to test the effectiveness of this imaging technology to help the surgeons in locating microscopic residual metastatic cancerous cells, that are unable to detect in the first surgery.
These residual cancerous cells either originate from the peritoneum or spread till that location through metastasis.
The researchers are hopeful that this study will help to increase the cancer patient’s survival rate and quality of life as well.
In addition to peritoneal mesothelioma patients, this imaging technology can also be immensely helpful for the patients of ovarian cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, or appendiceal cancer. Thus, positive results can give hope to thousands of suffering people.
G technology has been proven to be able to detect minute and hard-to-detect tumor cells.
The director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Breast Program and Professor at the Harvard Medical School, Dr. Barbara Smith, is working as the lead investigator alongside Dr. Cusack in these trials. From her study in 2018, she had reported positive results of this imaging technology on the patients of breast cancer.
She said,
“Our study found that the Lumicell Imaging System was effective for real-time identification of residual cancer intraoperatively. The system is an important advance as many breast cancer patients currently need second surgeries for positive margins,”
and
“We’re excited to determine whether this peritoneal feasibility study will bring the same advantages to treating patients with peritoneal metastases — with an ultimate goal to improve survival rates.”
How Lumicell Can Help in Surgical Treatment of Peritoneal Mesothelioma
This technology can give access to visualize hard to detect residual tumor cells in the first cytoreductive treatment of peritoneal mesothelioma.
Thus, if surgeons removed a significant percentage of malignant tissue in the first surgery, then, fewer microscopic cancer cells can effectively be removed through HIPEC. Consequently, there are substantial chances of increased survival rate of mesothelioma patients after a single surgery.
In this study, researchers compare the results from the Lumicell technology research with the traditionally in-use microscopic imaging results.
Lumicell imaging technology has begun testing peritoneal mesothelioma cancer patients on April 3rd, 2019.
Dr. Cusack said,
“This feasibility study is a critical first step in determining if the Lumicell System will be effective in improving the quality of life for people with peritoneal metastases and ovarian cancer,”
And
“We will be evaluating the Lumicell System, by comparing the imaging results detected at the molecular level with the traditional microscopic evaluation, to improve surgical outcomes for a patient with peritoneal surface malignancies.”
Regarding the vast impact of this undergoing study, the Chief Executive Officer of Lumicell Kelly Londy said,
“We are very excited to have our solution support surgeons and patients in the breast, ovarian/peritoneal and five other cancers in clinical trials at this time. Because of this work, we’re one step closer to delivering on our promise: developing the technology that visualizes cancer cells in real-time during surgery and helps to improve and save lives. Our team is very hopeful that the outcome of the feasibility study will reveal the positive results that our industry, doctors, and patients are waiting for.”
The successive progression of this study will help surgeons to visualize better and eliminate all of the tumor cells. Thus there will be nothing left behind for recurrence. The Lumicell procedure will improve the survival rate of patients suffering from peritoneum cancers.
