Independent:
The surgical removal of tumors is a standard treatment for
cancer, but often at least 20% of the cancerous tissue is left
behind. A new electrosurgical knife—invented by Zoltan
Takats of Imperial College London—might change that. The
knife cauterizes blood vessels as it cuts, and the resulting
smoke is collected and passed through a mass spectrometer to
detect the telltale signs of cancer cells. In lab trials, the
new procedure identified malignant tissue with 100% accuracy.
If it is equally successful in actual practice, it will
significantly reduce the number of followup surgeries. Takats,
who has established a company called Medimass to commercialize
the knife, also envisions nonmedical uses such as food safety
testing.
