Refining the Intraoperative Identification of Suspected High-Grade Glioma Using a Surgical Fluorescence Biomarker: GALA BIDD Study Report.

Background: Improving intraoperative accuracy with a validated surgical biomarker is important because identifying high-grade areas within a glioma will aid neurosurgical decision-making and sampling.

Methods: We designed a multicentre, prospective surgical cohort study (GALA-BIDD) to validate the presence of visible fluorescence as a pragmatic intraoperative surgical biomarker of suspected high-grade disease within a tumour mass in patients undergoing 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) fluorescence-guided cytoreductive surgery.

Results: A total of 106 patients with a suspected high-grade glioma or malignant transformation of a low-grade glioma were enrolled.