The Cancer Sniffer-Cum- Remover ‘Scalpel’ – An Augmenter Of Survival Rates

A state-of-the-art scalpel that could identify the presence of cancerous cells in the course of operative procedure could augment the success rate of cancer surgeries.

The path breaking contraption functions by instantaneously spotting the presence of malignant cells in so-dubbed surgical smoke, the gas produced during cutting or cauterising tissue during surgery.

The prompt response would mean that the doctors could be certain they have eradicated all malignant growth that could be skulking in the body.

Surgery is the crucial part of majority of the cancer treatments. However, it could be quite tricky for surgeons to be sure that they have taken out the entire tumour.

Currently, scans are done of the tumour to determine ahead of time, what they would require removal. In majority of the situations, the surgeons incise few centimetres more of the adjacent tissues in order to be on the safer side.

However, the procedure is still quite rudimentary and the risk of remnant cancerous cells within the body is quite high.

The newest innovation, by researchers from the Justus-Liebig University, Giessen, Germany, could be a potent way out. The scientists have employed an electroscalpel – an appliance that emits waste vapours during incision through the tissue – and connected to an apparatus known as a mass spectrometer – a kind of equipment normally employed in the lab for chemical investigation. It could detect thousands of varied kinds of molecules by examining their mass and electrical charge.

It is common knowledge that malignant tissues have a diverse chemical outline in comparison to normal tissues. However, till lately, there has been no available means of examining it during the time of surgery.

The German group of scientists have detected that the suction of surgical fumes into the mass spectrometer could provide instantaneous response as to whether the tissue being incised is malignant or not.

They evolved a means of rendering this into a body map that appears on to a screen in the operating room.

Professor Zoltan Takats, who is helming the research, states that there is no direct data available of the tumor presence during the course of the cancer surgery. Hence, they intend to furnish the surgeons with a tool that would help them instantly test any kind of dubious presence during the course of the surgery itself.

• A potent new-fangled treatment that employs light is presently undergoing test in the investigational phase at the University College London for the effectual treatment of head, neck and breast cancers.

The innovatory novel therapy dubbed PCI (photochemical internalisation) could firstly be available to British patients.

During the treatment, a chemical known as photosensitiser is firstly injected into the cancer cells. This chemical is known to elicit a strong, violent reaction when a laser ray is directed towards it.

During the next step of the procedure, the cancer-combatant drug known as bleomycin is injected. Bleomycin is a drug that has previously been employed, however, alike several cancer treatments, it could mar normal tissues alongside cancerous tissues and lead to disagreeable side-effects, like nausea and weariness.

With the novel therapy, as soon as the drug molecules are placed in position close to the cancer cells, a laser beam is directed onto the body for activating the photosensitive chemical.

This shatters the cancer cells internally and facilitates the easy seepage of bleomycin that aids in destroying the cancer cells more effectually.

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