Doctors are turning cancer cells bright pink so they can spot them and remove them in an innovative brain tumour research trial being carried out at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. Leading neurosurgeon Dr Colin Watts and his team are conducting ambitious research that could remove all traces of the brain tumour Glioblastoma. Glioblastoma is the most aggressive form of adult brain tumour. Unfortunately with current treatment methods total resection is difficult and average survival time is just 14 months.

But Dr Watts is changing that by trialling a drug that makes brain cancer glow bright pink, helping surgeons remove all the tumour, stopping the disease returning. One of the difficulties in brain surgery is spotting the difference between cancer cells and healthy cells, which means some cancer cells can be missed. “To try and prevent this we’re trialling a new technique which makes the cancerous cells glow pink, helping us to remove all the cancer”.

The way it works is through a special chemical which is absorbed by the cancer cells. Patients are given a special drink containing 5 – Aminolevulinic (5 ALA) 4 hours before their operation. This lemony-tasting drink containing 5-ALA is absorbed by cancer cells and then basically rearranged into a much larger molecule – one that looks a little bit like a crystal. When the surgeon turns on a light of a specific colour, the light waves bounce off this crystal and re-emerge bright pink, helping to guide the operation. Aminolevulinic acid is a non-fluorescent prodrug that leads to intracellular accumulation of fluorescent porphyrins in malignant gliomas