There is now a “pen” that can detect cancerous cells within seconds, scientists at the University of Texas announced Wednesday.
The MasSpec Pen can identify
cancerous tissue 150 times faster than any
existing technology. Use of this pen during surgery would cut out the
middle work of cutting a tissue sample and sending it to a pathologist.
When researchers tested the pen on 253 cancer patients, it was found to
be 96% accurate. It even detected cancer in tissue with mixed cellular
composition, meaning much less invasive surgeries and leaving as much
healthy tissue behind as possible.
Doctors must quickly determine the difference between cancerous tissue
and normal tissue, but current methods can take more than 30 minutes to
analyze, while the patient is still lying cut open on the table.
For it to work, the sensor on the pen analyzes metabolites, molecules
that act as fingerprints for different types of cancer in cells. The pen
releases a drop of water, which absorbs tissue information, then the
water is sent to a mass spectrometer which then announces the result of
“normal” or “cancer.”
“Through this simple and gentle chemical process, the MasSpec Pen
rapidly provides diagnostic molecular information without causing tissue
damage," Livia Schiavinato Eberlin, lead author, said in a statement to
UT News.
The team has filed U.S. and global patent applications for the new
technology and they hope to begin testing the device during surgeries
next year.
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