Less than two percent of cancer cases in humans are brain tumors. A rare, but greatly feared disease, diagnosis often means the patient only has a few years or even months to live. The tumor constantly increases the pressure within the brain until it becomes life-threatening.
Treatment possibilities are still limited, but surgery can improve and prolong the patient's quality of life.
Neurosurgeons are often facing the challenge to remove a maximum amount of diseased tissue and without harming healthy ones. Fluorescence technology can help neurosurgeons walk this fine line during surgery on a brain tumor.
Prof. h.c. Walter Stummer, M.D., Ph.D. (image on the left side), today works at the University Hospital of Münster, Germany. He was one of the driving forces when fluorescence technology was invented for tumor resection.