15 October 2009
Surgical scalpel helps uncover cancer
In the hope of helping oncologists remove every piece of tumor tissue during surgery, researchers are developing new imaging tools that work in real time in the operating room.
Technology Review reported European researchers have now demonstrated a chemical analysis instrument called a mass spectrometer can be coupled with an electroscalpel to create a molecular profile of tissue during surgery. The researchers have shown the method can be used to map out different tissue types and distinguish cancerous tissue. The device will begin clinical trials next month.
“When a surgeon is performing cancer surgery, he doesn’t have any direct information on where the tumor is,” said Zoltán Takáts, a professor at Justus-Liebig University in Giessen, Germany. Instead, surgeons rely on preoperative imaging scans and on feedback from pathologists examining tissue biopsies under a microscope. “We want to provide a tool that’s right in their hands, so that if they think a structure looks suspicious, they can just test it,” said Takáts.
Mass spectrometry, a very precise method for identifying molecules by analyzing the ratio between their mass and charge, is already being used by a handful of research groups to study biological samples. Researchers have known for many years that tumor tissue and healthy tissue have different molecular profiles and this can be used to tell them apart, or even to determine how aggressive a particular tumor is. Other research groups have used mass spectrometry to analyze biopsied tissue and have shown that it can make these differentiations. The problem with using mass spectrometry in the operating room is sample collection. Before molecules can be analyzed, they have to be ionized and sucked up into the machine. Creating ions requires bombarding a sample with a stream of charged particles, often a gas, and these methods are not suitable for the operating room. “A high-voltage nitrogen jet is not compatible with the human body,” said Takáts.
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