A New Imaging Agent Makes the Path to Lung Cancer Surgery Easier

• Lung cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world.
• Oncology Surgeons have relied on a range of tools, techniques, and skills to remove cancerous tumours.
• Phillip Low, a Purdue University scholar, and Ralph C. Corley, a chemistry professor in the College of Science, invented the drug Cytalux, as a part of the Purdue Center for Cancer Research.

The drug will help to identify cancerous tumours by illuminating them and making them glow against healthy and non-cancerous tissues, thus helping surgeons be more precise.

• In the field of medical science, the invention of Cytalux in lung cancer surgery is a welcome development that will help remove all malignant tissues while retaining healthy tissues.
• Based on the unique chemistry of fluorescent dye, Cytalux, when injected intravenously, lights and glows up the tumours inside the human body.
• Cancer cells need folate (a type of vitamin B) to multiply faster inside the body. The Cytalux when injected inside, tags the folate compound with a fluorescent dye.
• These cancerous cells then fluoresce under near-infrared light and are thus easily traceable by surgeons.
• In clinical trials, Cytalux has helped surgeons visualize undetected cancer tissue in 24% of lung cancer patients.
• This drug has helped surgeons avoid removing healthy and non-cancerous tissues during surgery for lung cancer.
• "We are the first tumour-targeted fluorescent dye to be approved by the FDA. We are also working on other tumour-targeted fluorescent dyes to target many other types of cancer", says Phillip Low.

Source - News Medical