Real-time MRI combined with new non-invasive cellular mapping techniques are being used to develop a new biopsy technique that can more accurately diagnose patients with brain cancer.
One of the challenges with conventional biopsy is that distinct areas of brain tumors exhibit different cell densities so that biopsies taken from different areas can cause different results. In additional, because tumors are hidden in the brain, algorithms must be used to calculate areas that should be biopsied, and these calculations are subject to error.
Neurosurgeons at University of California San Diego Health System used Restriction Spectrum Imaging to visualize the parts of the brain containing different cell densities and target biopsies to these areas, minimizing the number of biopsies needed while achieving a sampling that best characterizes the entire tumor. Article