Geisinger Health System Chooses Latest Optical Molecular Imaging Technology from Carestream Molecular Imaging

Geisinger Health System’s Neuroscience Institute is using the latest optical molecular imaging technology from Carestream Molecular Imaging as part of its cutting-edge research of brain cancer treatment. The objective of this research is to make surgery for brain tumors and inflammatory lesions simpler and more precise by using fluorescent nanospheres to more easily visualize tumors and lesions during treatment procedures.

Geisinger’s neuroscience lab chose the company’s KODAK In-Vivo Multispectral Imaging System FX to assess which nanoparticles would be most efficacious for image-guided brain surgery in patients in the near future.

Brain tumors, which afflict approximately 200,000 people each year in the U.S. alone, are often associated with bleak patient outcomes. Surgery can improve the survival rate for many brain tumors, but it is often difficult or impossible for surgeons to distinguish healthy tissue from tumors using current methods.

The research is being led by Dr. Steven A. Toms, MD, Geisinger Health System’s Director of Neurosurgery and Co-Director of the Neuroscience Institute.

“These techniques are designed to make needle placement for biopsies more precise and improve the completeness of tumor resection,“ explains Dr. Toms. “Ultimately this technology should decrease complications and improve survival for a variety of tumors.”

The KODAK In-Vivo Multispectral Imaging System FX is designed to precisely locate and monitor changes in molecular activity of specific cells or organs, such as the brain—long before morphological changes can be detected—expediting the development of effective therapeutics for disease treatment. The system’s unique multispectral tuning of excitation light greatly enhances image sensitivity, allowing for the identification and separation of multiple optical biological marker signals in subjects such as small animals, while removing background noise.

“It is our hope that this technology will soon allow us to pinpoint the precise location for needle placement during surgery. The system’s X-ray capability helps to localize and give anatomical overlay, which we expect, one day, to be very helpful from a surgical perspective,” noted Dr. Toms.
Carestream Health, an independent company, has licensed the KODAK brand for use with its own brands across its portfolio of leading-edge molecular imaging, medical imaging and healthcare IT products.