It has been established that fluorescence-guided resection using 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) is useful in glioma surgery. The authors report on a 65-year-old woman who had a huge atypical left-hemisphere meningioma, which extended into the skull and to the superior sagittal sinus and demonstrated fluorescence in response to administration of 5-ALA. After the tumor was removed, the operative field was observed under the fluorescent mode of a fluorescence surgical microscopy system. Several minute areas of residual tumor tissue were visualized as strong fluorescence behind the vein and sinus, in a part of the hypertrophic dura, and along the edge of the skull. These remnants were completely removed. The authors concluded that fluorescence-guided resection using 5-ALA is useful in cases of atypical meningiomas with a high risk of recurrence.

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Both malignant tumors and the perinecrotic area in radiation necrosis or neurodegenerative disease can be labeled as fluorescence positive using 5-aminolevulinic acid.

We have devised a new drug screening assay to discover anti-cancer drugs which inhibit Ras-mediated cellular signals, by utilizing a Ras-responsive element (RRE)-driven reporter gene system. We found that hypothemycin, an anti-bacterial, reduces RRE-dependent transcription.