title: 5-Amino-4-oxopentanoic acid photodynamic diagnosis guided microsurgery and photodynamic therapy on VX2 brain tumour implanted in a rabbit model.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Complete tumour resection is important for improving the prognosis of brain tumour patients. However, extensive resection remains controversial because the tumour margin is difficult to be distinguished from surrounding brain tissue. It has been established that 5-amino-4-oxopentanoic acid (5-aminolevulinic acid, ALA) can be used as a photodynamic diagnostic marker and a photosensitizer for photodynamic therapy in surgical treatment of brain tumours. We investigated the efficacy of ALA photodynamically guided microsurgery and photodynamic therapy on VX(2) brain tumour implanted in a rabbit model.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighty New Zealand rabbits implanted with VX(2) brain tumours were randomly assigned to five groups: control, conventional white light microsurgery, a photodynamic therapy group, a photodynamically guided microsurgery group and a group in which guided microsurgery was followed by photodynamic therapy. The VX(2) tumour was resected under a surgical microscope. The tumour resection was confirmed with histological analysis. All animals were examined with MRI for presence of any residual tumour tissue. The survival time of each rabbit was recorded.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All treatment groups showed a significantly extended survival time compared with the control group. Photodynamically guided microsurgery combined with photodynamic therapy significantly prolonged survival time, compared with guided microsurgery alone. MRI and the autopsy results confirmed removal of most of the tumours.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that photodynamically guided surgery and photodynamic therapy significantly reduce or delay local recurrence, increase the effectiveness of radical resection and prolong the survival time of tumour bearing rabbits. Their combination has the potential to be used as a rapid and highly effective treatment of metastatic brain tumours.
authors: Department of Neurosurgery, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
authors: Hong
authors: H
authors: Xiao
authors: Qiong
authors: Q
authors: Liao
authors: Ming
authors: M
authors: Cheng
authors: Fei
authors: F
authors: Li
authors: Bing
authors: B
authors: Xie
authors: Mei
authors: M
authors: Li
authors: Hua
authors: H
authors: Feng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008866:Microsurgery / Q000379:methods*; D010778:Photochemotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D011817:Rabbits; D011897:Random Allocation