Method for viewing tumor tissue located within a body cavity

A method for utilizing a diagnostic procedure during surgery in a subject in need thereof, said method comprising:

• administering to the subject having directly viewable tumor tissue a diagnostically effective amount of a biologically compatible fluorescing targeting construct comprising a tumor-avid ligand moiety so as to allow the fluorescing targeting construct to specifically bind to and/or be taken up by the tumor tissue in the subject,
• irradiating an in vivo body part of the subject containing the tumor tissue with UV light having at least one wavelength in the excitation spectrum of the targeting construct under conditions that substantially eliminate extraneous light to the body part,
• directly viewing fluorescence from the specifically bound and/or taken up targeting construct so as to determine the location and/or surface area of the tumor tissue in the body part, and
• removing at least a portion of the tumor tissue.

A method for in vivo identification of tumor cells associated with a disease state in subject in need thereof, said method comprising:

• contacting samples of the tumor cells obtained from the subject in vitro with a plurality of detectably labeled tumor-avid compounds,
• determining which of the tumor-avid compounds bind to and/or are taken up by the sample cells,
• administering to the subject a diagnostically effective amount of one or more biologically compatible fluorescing targeting constructs, each comprising as ligand moiety at least one of the tumor-avid compounds determined to bind to and/or be taken up by the sample cells so as to allow the fluorescing targeting construct to bind and/or by taken up selectively in vivo by directly viewable tumor tissue,
• irrading an in vivo body part of the subject containing the tumor tissue with UV light having at least one wavelength in the excitation spectrum of the targeting construct under conditions that substantially eliminate extraneous light to the in vivo body part, and
• directly viewing fluorescence emanating form the fluorescing targeting construct bound to and/or taken up by the tumor tissue so as to determine the location and/or surface area of the tumor tissue in the directly viewable in vivo body part.