Identification of brain tumours in rats using laser-induced fluorescence and haematoporphyrin derivative

Laser-induced fluorescence has been used for the identification of brain tumours in rats, which have been previously given tumour-seeking haematoporphyrin derivative. A pulsed nitrogen laser (λ=337 nm) was used in conjunction with an optical multichannel analyzer. For both inoculated RG-2 and TCVC rat-brain-tumour models, the blue autofluorescence was strongly reduced in the tumour compared with normal brain tissue, and at the same time the characteristic red-drug signal increased. The contrast between tumour and normal tissue was strongly enhanced by forming the ratio between the two signals. Implications for possible improvement of tumour delineation in brain tumour surgery are discussed.