Remove cancerous tumors of the brain is now more precise thanks to a breakthrough at the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona. The brain metastasis It is the most frequent tumor in the brain, with the most difficult challenge for surgeons being the fact of removing every last cancer cell.

Gloria Villalba, coordinator of the center’s neurosurgery service, explained to laSexta that the problem is that they remove the cells they see, but there are cells that “go beyond the tumor that cannot be seen with the naked eye or under a microscope“.

It is those cells that cause the disease to reproduce. Now, for the first time in Spain, the Hospital del Mar systematically uses the sodium fluoresceina harmless dye that tints all tumor cells yellow, even the most hidden ones.

“Removing these cells makes much less likely the tumor will come back in the same area and it is what can shorten their life”, adds Dr. Villalba. In the last five years, the application of cases of brain metastases has multiplied by three, something that occurs thanks to these new treatments that lengthen the lives of cancer patients.

However, a longer time living with the disease means that there is a greater chance that the cancer spreads to other parts of the body.