David G. Kirsch, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator '08-'10, Innovation Award Committee Member) at the Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, and colleagues, have tested a new injectable agent that causes cancer cells in a tumor to fluoresce, potentially increasing a surgeon's ability to locate and remove all of a cancerous tumor on the first attempt. The study reports that in 15 patients undergoing surgery for soft-tissue sarcoma or breast cancer, the injectable agent called LUM015, identified cancerous tissue in human patients without adverse effects. The findings were published in Science Translational Medicine and featured in Time Magazine.
