Fluorescence Detection of Malignant Liver Tumors using 5-Aminolevulinic Acid-Mediated Photodynamic Diagnosis: Principles,Technique, and Clinical Experience

Background

Photoactive drugs selectively accumulate in malignant tissue specimens and cause drug-induced fluorescence. Photodynamic diagnosis (PDD) and fluorescence can distinguish normal from malignant tissue.

Objective

Methods

From May 2012 to September 2013, a total of 70 patients underwent hepatic resections using 5-ALA-mediated PDD for liver tumors at our hospital.

Results

5-ALA fluorescence was detected in all hepatocellular carcinoma cases with serosa invasion. In liver metastasis from colorectal cancer cases with serosa invasion, 18 patients (85.7 %) were detected, and three patients (14.2 %) whose tumors showed complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy showed no fluorescence. Both superficial and deep malignant liver tumors were detected with 92.5 % sensitivity. Using 5-ALA-mediated PDD, tumors remaining at the cut surface and postoperative bile leakage were less frequent than in our previous hepatic resections using conventional white-light observation. Moreover, all malignant liver tumors were completely removed with a clear microscopic margin using 5-ALA, with a significant difference in resection margin width between 5-ALA-mediated PDD (6.7 ± 6.9 mm) and white-light observation (9.2 ± 7.0 mm; p = 0.0083).

Conclusions

With the detection of malignant liver tumors, residual tumor and bile leakage at the cut surface of the remnant liver were improved by PDD with 5-ALA. This procedure may provide greater sensitivity than the conventional procedure. Furthermore, 5-ALA-mediated PDD can ensure histological clearance regardless of the resection margin and preserve as much liver parenchyma as possible in patients with impaired liver function.