Purpose:The aim of this review is to evaluate the role of intraoperative flow cytometry (IFC) in tumor surgery.Methods:The Medline, Scopus, and Cochrane databases were searched up to 21 June 2025 to identify all available studies that met the inclusion criteria for final evaluation. To assess the risk of bias and applicability concerns, the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 (QUADAS-2) tool was used.Results:A total of 22 studies involving 1511 patients with various tumor types were analyzed to assess the utility of IFC in the rapid diagnosis of tumors. The studies investigated IFC’s role in tumor grading, margin delineation, prognostic evaluation, and in differentiating neoplastic from benign lesions, as well as normal from cancerous tissues. In brain tumors, particularly gliomas and meningiomas, IFC demonstrated high diagnostic performance, with reported sensitivities ranging from 61% to 100% and specificities from 66% to 100%. Studies on non-brain tumors also showed high accuracy in distinguishing neoplastic from normal tissues, with sensitivities and specificities exceeding 85% in most cases. The most promising results were observed in brain tumor surgery, although its application in other tumor types continues to expand.Conclusions:IFC appears to be a valuable intraoperative tool in surgical oncology, providing rapid results within minutes and assisting in surgical and therapeutic decision-making. Nonetheless, studies remain limited, and further research is needed, particularly for non-brain tumors, to establish standardized cut-off values and enhance diagnostic reliability.
目的：本综述旨在评估术中流式细胞术（IFC）在肿瘤手术中的作用。 方法：检索截至2025年6月21日的Medline、Scopus和Cochrane数据库，筛选符合纳入标准的所有可用研究进行最终评估。采用诊断准确性研究质量评估工具（QUADAS-2）评估偏倚风险和适用性问题。 结果：共纳入22项研究，涉及1511例不同类型肿瘤患者，以评估IFC在肿瘤快速诊断中的应用价值。这些研究探讨了IFC在肿瘤分级、切缘界定、预后评估、区分肿瘤性与良性病变以及正常组织与癌组织方面的作用。在脑肿瘤（尤其是胶质瘤和脑膜瘤）中，IFC显示出较高的诊断效能，报告的灵敏度为61%至100%，特异度为66%至100%。针对非脑肿瘤的研究也表明，IFC在区分肿瘤组织与正常组织方面具有较高准确性，多数研究中灵敏度和特异度均超过85%。尽管IFC在其他肿瘤类型中的应用仍在扩展，但目前最有前景的结果见于脑肿瘤手术。 结论：IFC似乎是肿瘤外科中一种有价值的术中工具，能在数分钟内提供快速结果，辅助手术及治疗决策。然而，相关研究仍有限，未来需进一步开展研究（尤其针对非脑肿瘤），以建立标准化临界值并提升诊断可靠性。
The Role of Intraoperative Flow Cytometry in Surgical Oncology: A Systematic Review
肿瘤(癌症)患者之家