When a tumour is suspected, brain MRI is essential to visualise the affected area of the brain, the size of the lesion and the nature of the tumour.
However, the diagnosis of certainty is based on the removal of a tumour fragment, either by direct removal of the brain tumour, i.e. more or less complete removal of the tumour if its nature and characteristics assessed by MRI allow this, or by a simple biopsy in other cases.
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At the Paris Brain Institute
Researchers in the team led by Prof Marc SANSON and Dr Emmanuelle HUILLARD, in collaboration with the Institut du Cerveau – ICM’s imaging platform, CENIR, have developed a new non-invasive way of characterising the properties of a particular type of tumour using magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Using MRI, this technology enables the activity of brain cells to be quantified by identifying molecules associated with their metabolism.
In particular, work on this subject has made it possible to characterise the IDH mutation in patients’ tumours without the need for a biopsy, which would have been essential for molecular analysis and a search for the mutation.