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Electro-Scalpel "Sniffs Out" Tumors

Posted by samzenpus on from the smells-like-health dept.

TechReviewAl writes "Researchers in Germany have developed a surgical tool that uses chemical analysis to identify cancerous tissue as a surgeon cuts. The instrument uses a modified mass spectrometer — a device that uses ionized molecules to perform very accurate chemical analysis — to pinpoint tumors so that surgeons can make sure they remove everything. Mass spectrometry has been used to study biopsied biological samples before, but never used in-situ. The key was to harness ionized gas already produced by the electro-scalpel."

6 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. That is freakin' brilliant. by jcr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They actually found a use for the smoke that an electric cautery produces. Amazing.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    1. Re:That is freakin' brilliant. by MichaelSmith · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yeah. Having seen what chemotherapy did to my father in law a couple of months ago I will be asking for surgery if I need cancer treatment in the future, no matter how invasive it is.

      Maybe they can build it into an arthroscope to get into those hard to reach locations.

      Also I wonder if they could use it for localised radiotherapy. The GC tells you where to embed the tiny radioactive sources.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    2. Re:That is freakin' brilliant. by MichaelSmith · · Score: 3, Informative

      What is the the smoke used for?

      It is fed into a Gas Chromatograph which gives the surgeon feedback about the sort of tissue he is cutting through. Seven years ago I watched an obstetrician operate on my wife with a cutting tool like this. She prefers that I not describe the experience in graphic detail in her presence.

      Pocket GC == Tricorder

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    3. Re:That is freakin' brilliant. by blueturffan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My sister finished chemo and radiation about a year ago. In her case, she needed two surgeries to remove the tumors, and the chemo/radiation was to make sure they got anything that was too small to be seen with PET scans.

      I don't think surgery or chemo is necessarily an either/or option.

  2. Yes, but... by vegiVamp · · Score: 3, Informative

    The way I read it, it tells you what tissue you're cutting *when you're cutting it*, not beforehand. It doesn't "sniff out" cancer as much as that it tells you wether or not the thing you're currently damaging is cancer or not.

    --
    What a depressingly stupid machine.
  3. Re:Can anyone tell me the difference by reverseengineer · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm not sure what exactly they use as a marker in this case, but I know that one distinguishing feature for cancer cells is increased oxidative stress that attacks membrane lipids. Due to this, cancer cells have much larger concentrations of small-chain alkanes than you would expect in a healthy cell. Using alkanes as your biomarker has the further advantage of their structural simplicity; you can just dial in on the mass of something like pentane or hexane molecular ions without having to do detective work on a bunch of fragments.

    Since the shorter alkanes are highly volatile, there have already been experiments to show that lung cancers can be detected by GC-MS of collected breath, and even some experiments that dogs have a sense of smell acute enough to pick up on these markers.

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    "FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."