The difficulty in delineating brain tumor margins is a major obstacle in the path toward better outcomes for patients with brain tumors. Current imaging methods are often limited by inadequate sensitivity, specificity and spatial resolution. Here we show that a unique triplemodality magnetic resonance imaging - photoacoustic imaging - Raman imaging nanoparticle (termed here MPR nanoparticles), can accurately help delineate the margins of brain tumors in living mice both preoperatively and intraoperatively. The MPRs were detected by all three modalities with at least a picomolar sensitivity both in vitro and in living mice. Intravenous injection of MPRs into glioblastoma-bearing mice led to MPR accumulation and retention by the tumors, with no MPR accumulation in the surrounding healthy tissue, allowing for a noninvasive tumor delineation using all three modalities through the intact skull. Raman imaging allowed for guidance of intraoperative tumor resection, and a histological correlation validated that Raman imaging was accurately delineating the brain tumor margins. This new triple-modality– nanoparticle approach has promise for enabling more accurate brain tumor imaging and resection.

Date Published: 21 March 2013
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 8581, Photons Plus Ultrasound: Imaging and Sensing 2013, 85810G (21 March 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2001719

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8581:
Photons Plus Ultrasound: Imaging and Sensing 2013
Alexander A. Oraevsky; Lihong V. Wang, Editor(s)