Red-light excitation of protoporphyrin IX fluorescence for subsurface tumor detection

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to detect 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA)-induced tumor fluorescence from glioma below the surface of the surgical field by using red-light illumination. METHODS To overcome the shallow tissue penetration of blue light, which maximally excites the ALA-induced fluorophore protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) but is also strongly absorbed by hemoglobin and oxyhemoglobin, a system was developed to illuminate the surgical field with red light (620-640 nm) matching a secondary, smaller absorption peak of PpIX and detecting the fluorescence emission through a 650-nm longpass filter. This wide-field spectroscopic imaging system was used in conjunction with conventional blue-light fluorescence for comparison in 29 patients undergoing craniotomy for resection of high-grade glioma, low-grade glioma, meningioma, or metastasis. RESULTS Although, as expected, red-light excitation is less sensitive to PpIX in exposed tumor, it did reveal tumor at a depth up to 5 mm below the resection bed in 22 of 24 patients who also exhibited PpIX fluorescence under blue-light excitation during the course of surgery. CONCLUSIONS Red-light excitation of tumor-associated PpIX fluorescence below the surface of the surgical field can be achieved intraoperatively and enables detection of subsurface tumor that is not visualized under conventional blue-light excitation. Clinical trial registration no.: NCT02191488 (clinicaltrials.gov).