Membrane Voltage Profiling: A Bioelectricity-Based Intraoperative Imaging Methodology for Rapid Surgical Margin...

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Biotechnology
• Surgical Innovation

Background:

• Incomplete cancer removal during surgery poses significant risks to patients.
• Current methods lack real-time feedback for complete tumor excision.
• Lucell Diagnostics Inc. is developing membrane voltage profiling (MVPro) for intraoperative cancer detection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility of MVPro for locating cancer cells.
• To evaluate MVPro's impact on normal pathology and surgical protocols.
• To validate MVPro's accuracy against traditional pathological analysis.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing fluorescent voltage-sensitive dyes to detect cancer cell depolarization.
• Optimizing tissue transfer for margin cell collection.
• Testing the VSD DiBAC4(3) for MVPro of skin cells.
• Comparing MVPro results with standard pathological analysis on nonmelanoma skin cancer specimens.

Main Results:

• MVPro is low-risk and integrates with existing surgical workflows.
• The method accurately identifies cancer in the same specimens as pathology.
• MVPro does not complicate subsequent pathological analysis.
• Preliminary studies show voltage-based detection of cancer cells is feasible.

Conclusions:

• MVPro offers a promising intraoperative tool for precise cancer margin assessment.
• The technology has the potential to improve surgical outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.
• MVPro's affordability and simplicity make it suitable for global healthcare settings, including underserved regions.