Fluorescence Guided Surgery

Fluorescence guided surgery (FGS), also called fluorescence image-guided surgery, or in the specific case of tumor resection, fluorescence guided resection, is a medical imaging technique used to detect fluorescently labelled structures during surgery. Similarly to standard image-guided surgery, FGS has the purpose of guiding the surgical procedure and providing the surgeon of real time visualization of the operating field.

The goal of surgery is to safely remove as much cancer as possible. The degree to which cancer is removed relates closely to prognosis. However, the ability to resect tumor currently relies on the visual localization of the tumor and/or the ability to palpate it. The former is limited by the low contrast between tumors and background tissue and many small tumors may be missed.

Surgical resection of cancer remains an important treatment modality. Despite advances in preoperative imaging, surgery itself is primarily guided by the surgeon’s ability to locate pathology with conventional white light imaging. Fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) can be used to define tumor location and margins during the procedure. Intraoperative visualization of tumors may not only allow more complete resections but also improve safety by avoiding unnecessary damage to normal tissue which can also reduce operative time and decrease the need for second-look surgeries.