Comparative in vivo and ex vivo analysis of tumor and healthy tissues using the MasSpec Pen: a mass spectrometry device for real-time Cancer diagnosis and guide surgical decisions

• Grant number: 23/16341-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: August 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Immunology
• Principal Investigator: Kenneth John Gollob
• Grantee: Gustavo Gonçalves Silva
• Host Institution: Instituto Israelita de Ensino e Pesquisa Albert Einstein (IIEPAE). Sociedade Beneficente Israelita Brasileira Albert Einstein (SBIBAE). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Currently, intraoperative diagnosis is performed by histopathological freezing and allows differentiation between tissue types, and the diagnosis of benign and malignant diseases, but there are still a number of factors that contribute to indeterminate or incorrect results in this technique. The MasSpec Pen is a mass spectrometry-based device that allows real-time identification of biomolecules directly in tissue samples to be analyzed, whether in vivo or ex vivo. This innovative technology allows the molecular characterization of different tissue types through the identification of metabolites unique to each one. This approach has been extended to intraoperative diagnosis of normal and tumor tissues. Through an aqueous extraction provided by a pen-shaped probe, the molecules on the surface of a tissue sample are directed to a mass spectrometer, without separation steps, making it possible to detect metabolites, lipids and proteins specific to different tissue types, allowing the differentiation of healthy and tumoral tissues and also delimiting the tumor areas that will be excised during the surgical procedure. Our goal with this postdoctoral project is to validate the MasSpec Pen in Brazil, it will be the first time this technology is used outside of the USA, we will confirm the ability of this powerful tool to provide real-time data that distinguishes between healthy and cancerous tissue during intraoperative diagnosis. We also intend to explore the ability of this tool to identify characteristics about the immune infiltrate in the analyzed tissues. For this, patients with surgical indication for the removal of benign or malignant lung or thyroid tumors will be recruited. It will be the first time that this technology has been used in a South American institution, and the success of this study could be a confirmation of the reproducibility and large-scale applicability of the MasSpec Pen for guidance in surgical decision-making and cancer diagnosis in real time. (AU)