Smart surgical knife - feels cancer during surgery - Gazeta Wyborcza

author of “iKnife’a” is working at Imperial College, London, Dr Zoltan Takats. It has long been looking for a solution to the problem, which collide surgeons oncologists.

Surgical removal of the tumor is still the primary method of treatment. The surgeon excised the tumor with a margin of healthy tissue – to make sure that all malignant cells are removed and there is no recurrence.

Sorry – as written by the authors appearing in “Science Translational Medicine” – is often difficult to assess the limit extending between healthy and diseased tissue. For example, in the UK as one in five breast cancer surgery must be repeated to make sure that the entire tumor was removed.

Often in cases of doubt, apply intraoperative diagnosis. During the procedure, the patient or the patient is still in the general anesthesia, the doctor sends a dubious piece of tissue to a laboratory and waiting for results of the histopathological examination.

– This classic study usually takes about 30 minutes. In the case of “iKnife’a” is barely 3 seconds – said Zoltan Takats.

novel device st ructure is based on the construction of an ordinary electric surgical knife (for cutting an electric current using a high frequency), apparatus known in medicine 20 years the last century.

It allows you to cut tissue with minimal blood loss. And if it is current, high temperature, it must appear as the smoke from the intersecting tissues.

– I realized that the smoke can be a source of information. Different cell types produce after hundreds of different metabolites. Analyzing it all, we could find out whether the tissue is healthy – Takats explains.

“iKnife” combines classic electric surgical knife with a mass spectrometer, which analyzes the chemical composition of the sample.

After building a prototype, the researchers created a virtual library of device memory. They used to thousands of samples taken for a total of 302 patients. There were both healthy tissue fragments, breast cancer cells, lung, liver, brain, stomach or colon.

During testing, scientists using the “iKnife’a” fawn tissue obtained from 91 patients. Knife immediately subjected to chemical analysis at the floating vapors. At the same time the samples sent to the laboratory, where they were tested in a standard manner. At the end the results were compared.

– found that “iKnife” worked with 100 percent efficiency. He set the correct diagnosis in all 91 cases – has a Dr. Takats.

Scientist already planning further clinical trials in patients. He argues that the device can be used in many areas of medicine, for example, for rapid detection of bacteria in the sample.

And besides medicine?

– Absolutely – says scientist. Already, Dr. Takats conducting experiments in which a “iKnife’a” tries to detect whether there is a real steak sliced ??beef or horsemeat.