Laser Ablation-ICP-TOFMS Imaging of Germ Cell Tumors of Patients Undergoing Platinum-Based Chemotherapy
Theiner S. et al.
Metallomics, 2020
DOI: 10.1039/D0MT00080A
Theiner and co-workers highlight the potential of laser ablation inductively coupled plasma-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-TOFMS) for the analysis of tumor samples from patients undergoing cisplatin-based chemotherapy. The underlying goal of such imaging experiments is to test whether Pt accumulates in the tumor tissue in samples obtained from live patients, which would indicate that chemotherapy is taking the desired effect.
For the imaging experiments, TOFWERK’s icpTOF 2R was coupled to an Analyte Excite 193 nm ArF excimer laser ablation system (Teledyne Photon Machines) equipped with a HelEx II ablation cell and an aerosol rapid introduction system (ARIS). With this low-dispersion laser ablation setup fast multi-elemental imaging could be performed at a spatial resolution of down to 10 µm.
The accumulation of Pt together with the distribution of other key elements (e.g., Mg, P, S, Ca, Fe, Cu and Zn) was studied in sections of an aggressive tumor type located in the brain. The distribution maps of Pt showed that cisplatin indeed accumulated in the tumor tissue, which also agrees with the positive therapy response of the patients.
In their pioneering study, the authors show that LA-ICP-TOFMS could be a viable clinical diagnostic tool, based on the high throughput and relatively high spatial resolution of the technique.
