Discriminating Glioblastoma from Peritumoral Tissue by a Nanohole Array-Based Optical and Label-Free Biosensor

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Nanotechnology
• Oncology

Background:

• Maximal safe resection in glioblastoma (GBM) is challenging due to diffuse tumor infiltration.
• Plasmonic biosensors offer potential for optical property-based tissue discrimination.
• Intraoperative differentiation of tumor from peritumoral tissue is critical for surgical outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a nanostructured gold biosensor for ex vivo discrimination of GBM tumor tissue from peritumoral parenchyma.
• To assess the biosensor's ability to differentiate tissues based on refractive index (RI) differences.
• To determine the sensitivity and specificity of the biosensor for intraoperative use.

Main Methods:

• A prospective study involving 35 GBM patients undergoing surgical treatment.
• Ex vivo analysis of paired tumor and peritumoral tissue samples using a nanostructured gold biosensor.
• Measurement of refractive index (RI) differences from tissue imprints on the biosensor surface.
• Histopathological analysis for ground truth confirmation of tissue origin.

Main Results:

• Peritumoral samples exhibited significantly lower RI (1.341) compared to tumor samples (1.350) (p = 0.0047).
• The biosensor demonstrated strong discriminatory capacity (ROC AUC = 0.8779, p < 0.0001).
• Optimal RI cut-off of 0.003 yielded 81% sensitivity and 80% specificity.

Conclusions:

• Plasmonic-based nanostructured biosensors can effectively distinguish GBM tumor from peritumoral tissue.
• The label-free system shows potential for real-time intraoperative discrimination.
• This technology could aid surgeons in achieving maximal safe resection in GBM patients.