Safety Study of a Fluorescent Marker to Visualize Cancer Cells
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2015-03-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Many types of cancer are primarily treated with surgery and patient survival is directly
related to the extent to which the tumor is able to be removed. It is often difficult for
surgeons to distinguish tumor tissue from normal tissue or to detect tumor cells that have
spread from the original tumor site, resulting in incomplete removal of the tumor and reduced
patient survival. In addition, in some sites, such as the brain, it is critical to avoid
damage to normal tissue around the tumor to prevent adverse effects of surgery on function.
We hypothesize that BLZ-100 will improve surgical outcomes by allowing surgeons to visualize
the edges of the tumor and small groups of cancer cells that have spread to other sites in
real-time, as they operate.