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Neurosurgeons Use MRI-Guided Lasers To Destroy Tumors

breadboy21 writes "In the seemingly perpetual battle to rid this planet of cancer, a team of neurosurgeons from Washington University are using a new MRI-guided high-intensity laser probe to 'cook' brain tumors that would otherwise be completely inoperable. According to Dr. Eric C. Leuthardt, this procedure 'offers hope to certain patients who had few or no options before,' with the laser baking the cancer cells deep within the brain while leaving the good tissue around it unmarred. The best part, however, is that this is already moving beyond the laboratory, with a pair of doctors at Barnes-Jewish Hospital using it successfully on a patient last month. Regrettably, just three hospitals at the moment are equipped with the Monteris AutoLITT device, but if we know anything about anything related to lasers, it'll be everywhere in no time flat."

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  1. So, let me get this straight by EmagGeek · · Score: 0, Troll

    We want to eradicate cancer, so what we do is fight it on a case by case basis, where we prolong the lives of those genetically predisposed to cancer and allow them to propagate that weak DNA down generations.

    Seems to me the way to eradicate cancer is to allow natural selection to run its course and remove faulty DNA from the gene pool. It's too bad we're all too individually selfish to think of the greater implications of that selfishness.