Investigators

Summary

Marcus Malek, MD, director of Pediatric Surgical Oncology at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, directs a unique research program focused on improving surgical outcomes in pediatric tumors through use of novel molecular imaging technology. Towards this end, he and his lab team are developing new surgical tracers to guide surgeons to the tumor, facilitate safe resection, and confirm that the entire tumor was removed.

Complete surgical resection of tumors is critical to providing the best possible patient outcomes, but unfortunately, incomplete resection is a common occurrence. A significant program being pursued by Dr. Malek and his team is a dual-labeled, tumor-specific tracer, that will provide both visual and audible signals within the tumor that can be detected using existing surgical tools. Although the project is specifically targeting pediatric neuroblastoma and osteosarcoma, ultimately the technology can also be applied to other types of pediatric tumors.