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KINGSTON — A pair of Kingston Health Sciences Centre neurosurgeons have performed a groundbreaking brain tumour surgery using a new device that allowed them to see cancer tissue in real time, for the first time in Canada.
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Drs. Jamie and Teresa Purzner operated on Rick Savoie, a Kingston patient with a recurring glioblastoma tumour, using a special handheld imaging device that allowed them to see brain tumour cells in real time during the surgery.
The device, called Convivo and manufactured by Zeiss, a German company, utilizes fluorescence and advanced optical imaging to make detailed, glowing images of cancer tissue, lighting up areas that may appear normal to the naked eye.
In an interview with the Whig, Teresa Purzner said that the Convivo tool is a handheld version of larger microscopes that they use in the lab to check brain tumour resection samples.
“Because we can now take the same technology from the lab into the operating room, it means we can take the knowledge that we’ve discovered in the lab and directly apply it to what we’re doing in the operating room,” she said.
The Purzners specifically have been studying a vast array of tumour samples in lab thanks to a brand new biopsy capsule tool that they helped develop to give better, more precise and more targeted data on the molecular makeup of brain tumours in their patients, which often have a lot of variance from tumour to tumour, and patient to patient.
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“The biopsy capsule let us take the clinical information into the lab, and now the Convivo is letting us take the lab information back in to the person,” Teresa said. “That was our incentive to work with it, and it was actually Zeiss who approached us with the idea of bringing it in. We described what we were doing with our overall clinical care, in particular the innovation with the capsule and a lot of the sequencing and profiling we’ve been doing.”
Jamie Purzner told the Whig that the device gave them immediate information that would have otherwise taken time to receive.
“Typically if we wanted this information, we have to take the sample, I would send it to pathology, we’d have to fix it and slice it and look under the microscope, and that process would take about 30 to 40 minutes,” he said. “You could do it for diagnosis, but certainly not to tailor (a surgery) for what you’re going to take out and what you’re going to leave behind.”
The surgery for Rick Savoie was particularly suited to the device, with it being his second surgery to remove a recurring glioblastoma tumour, which was located close to the language centre of his brain.
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After the surgeons had removed as much of the tumour as possible using standard techniques, they then used the imaging device to look for any remnant cancer cells and were able to remove those without affecting his speech.
“For this type of tumour, surgical precision matters enormously,” Teresa said. “When other treatment options are limited, removing as much tumour as possible can have a meaningful impact on a patient’s quality of life.”
It’s the first time this type of imaging has been used in real time in surgery.
“It was actually very useful in this specific case, but now we’re giving it a future potential where it’s not just a tool for screening, but a tool for applying novel innovation,” Teresa said.
The novel use of the Convivo is especially useful to the Purzners, who work not only as surgeons but also as clinician scientists.
“One of the reasons why Jamie and I were able to adopt it so quickly and so early was just because we had so much experience looking at the same tissue, but in the lab,” Teresa said.
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The dual work in both patient care and scientific research has also lent itself to Teresa’s interest in finding new innovations for old systems.
“I think when you’re a scientist and a clinician, you feel the human aspect and the need so strongly because they’re your patients,” Teresa said. “I really get to know my patients, and I get to know them as humans, and you just so much want to do the best you can for that person. And then the scientist in me pushes (Jamie and I) to look outside the box and say, ‘You know, this is the best we can do with the tools we have, but why can’t we use these new tools? What else is there?’ ”
That “outside the box” thinking has guided Teresa’s recent work overhauling KHSC’s brain cancer program, improving patient outcomes and drawing interest from hospitals in other parts of the world, who are now looking to the organization’s innovative Integrative Brain Tumor Program model of care for ideas.
In supplied comments, Savoie said he was “willing to try anything,” knowing that the Convivo device would be used during his surgery for the first time ever in Canada.
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“Without this option, it would have been the end of the road,” he said in his statement. “There were no other treatments available for me. This surgery has given me more time with my family and I am so lucky.”
Savoie had to relearn to walk, talk, count and write after his first brain surgery in 2024. This latest surgery, his fourth, has left him with a renewed lease on life, he said.
“After this surgery I woke up and have been able to speak and live life normally,” he said. “I am feeling good. I feel like I am closer to 40 years old than 66.”
Savoie said he hopes his experience will help others who are facing similar diagnoses.
“We felt that if this could help improve brain surgery for other patients, I wanted to do it,” he said.
Jamie Purzner said that it’s too soon to say whether the Convivo will help improve patient outcomes. That data would come from a formal trial examining outcomes compared with traditional surgical techniques.
“I think we need to get more hands-on experience in terms of building an understanding of what this can do,” Jamie said. “I do think it’s a very promising technology.”
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