3rd surgery with 5-ALA

5-aminolevulinic acid

We had a brain scan done on the 3rd Nov and the report shows a enhancing tumor 5cm in size. It was devastatiing for us. No words can describe how we felt at that point of time.
The Dr suggest another surgery, which will be his 3rd. The second surgery was on the 16th Feb this year. This time round, the surgeon will use a new technique using 5-ALA.
Malignant glioma exhibit characteristic infiltrative proliferation and even under a powerful surgical microscope the tumour perimeters are hard to differentiate from healthy tissue. In brain surgery we can’t remove a bit of extra tissue to be on the safe side because that tissue is always functional, A new fluorescence technique that shows up tumour cells extremely clear and enables the surgeon to achieve much higher accuracy with tumour resection is 5-ALA. Well-tolerated 5-ALA labels tumour cells
Brain tumours like glioma are able to accumulate a substance called 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) and transform it into the strongly fluorescing protoporphyrinIX (PPIX). Three hours before the operation, Norman will drink a solution containing 20 mg of 5-ALAper kilogram bodyweight. The solution tastes rather sour, but is well tolerated and causes practically no side effects, because 5-ALA occurs naturally in the body. The PPIX is made to fluoresce under blue-violet light, enabling Dr Lee to clearly identify and safely remove the otherwise hard to spot tumour perimeters and any tumour residue remaining after resection of necrotic tissue and the solid tumour.
There is the danger of over cutting, so the Dr will wake up Norman half way thru the surgery to test his neuro functions like speech,memory and movement functions. We are assure that they will be no pain.
Dear friends, we need your fervent prayers to uphold us thru these trying times. We have not confirm the surgery date yet. Will be seeing the surgeon today and will update you all then.
May God bless you.
Dorothy