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A Robot To Destroy Breast Cancer Cells
Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers at the University of Maryland are developing a robot able to detect and destroy breast cancer cells in a single session. After a tumor is located on an MRI, the robot will perform a biopsy of the breast while the patient is inside the scanner. 'If the biopsy displays cancerous cells, the robot will then insert a probe into the breast until it reaches the tumor. The probe will then burn the cancer cells until they are destroyed.' This looks great, but the researchers have only built a prototype. After they refine this robot, they'll need to go through clinical trials and obtain FDA approval. So this is not a robot that will appear on the medical market before several years."
I think the trick is to do it outside the USA, where FDA need not apply. The catch then being that the money isn't there to develop it....
Guess it depends if the goal is to a) get it out there and help people, or b) get paid to R&D shit (and oogle womens breasts, in this instance).
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
Are you saying that the money to do this doesn't exist outside the US? That's complete and utter BS, not to mention very arrogant. Besides, if you intend to eventually sell a device like this in the US, you must still follow FDA rules and regulations during product development, clinical trials, etc; regardless if you are actually developing it inside the US or not. Not doing so would almost automatically exclude you from selling it in the US.
In regards to the comments on speeding it up, obviously you do not work in the medical device manufacturing field. It takes time to develop and prove new technologies that could impact the health of patients, in either a positive or negative way. You must prove that your device does work, not simply that it doesn't not work (intended double negative there).
Especially since the US legal system does not really discourage frivolous and unfounded lawsuits, you must carefully follow a lot of rules and regulations during product development, long before your device is even allowed to be used with living patients. Rushing a product to market too early could result in going out of business if the technology behind it is not thoroughly proven and documented. Clinical trials alone can take several years, depending on what kind of device you are talking about, how unproven the technology is, etc.
Perhaps this isn't a good time to mention it, but you should know that men can get breast cancer, too. Obviously it's not as common. Male breast cancers account for 1% of all breast cancers.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
There's a better description of the technology from the lab involved here:
http://rams.umd.edu/html/news.shtml#nihr01
'The goal of this project is to develop a novel teleoperated robotic system with haptic (sense of touch) feedback capability that will provide accurate feedback to the physician performing Breast biopsy (Bx) and/or Radio-frequency ablation (RFA) under continuous Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Some of the primary challenges of this project include: development of a compact robot manipulator, actuation and sensing that is MRI compatible, efficient use of MRI image sequences to guide the Bx needle and/or RFA probe accurately using adaptive control schemes that incorporate soft-tissue properties as the needle/probe traverses the tissue, and an intuitive user-interface which will provide real-time MRI images and Bx needle/RFA probe tracking with respect to the tumor (target) location.'
You don't have to wait for any cells to grow to make use of the biopsy (it can be assessed directly), but obviously a pathologist will have to examine the sample under a microscope before a treatment decision is made.