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- (HealthSCOUT) - You don't have to be a world-class surgeon
to realize that cutting cancerous tissues out of vital organs -- the brain,
for example -- is tricky business.
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- Doctors must walk a fine line. They need to remove all
or as much of the cancer as they can, while at the same time sparing healthy
tissue whenever possible. Work in a maze of blood, muscle, and fat and
you begin to understand what makes this work so difficult.
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- But researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque,
N.M., have developed a microelectronic device they say could change all
that.
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- By combining advanced laser and nanotechnology (the science
of miniature machines), the new device distinguishes between cancerous
and non-cancerous cells through an almost instant protein analysis.
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- Mounted on a scalpel, the brainy machine could someday
tell doctors exactly when to start -- and stop -- cutting.
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- The latest findings on the device -- called a biocavity
laser -- will be presented today in Minneapolis at a conference sponsored
by the American Physical Society.
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- "So far, we've made the chip that analyzes the cells,"
says Paul Gourley, who heads the Sandia research. "The next step
is to develop a tool that will act like a vacuum to suck up cells [as
the tissue is being cut] and analyze them right as they're coming off."
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- Gourley says the goal is to develop a scalpel system
that combines biopsy, pathological analysis and surgery all in one package.
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- "We still have some engineering hurdles to overcome,"
says Gourley . "It will take some partnering [with companies in the
biomedical and surgical tool industry] to develop a platform on which
the chip will operate."
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- Doubters proved wrong
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- Gourley's work is an outgrowth of research on compound
semiconductors -- materials that are the most efficient light-emitting
sources that can be powered by electricity.
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- "There were initial questions about the tiny dimensions,"
says Gourley. "How would you actually combine semiconductors, lasers
and microfluidics [a miniature water-flow system] on a chip?"
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- The solution was to build the device's laser components
directly into the semiconductor crystal. When pumped past the laser (which
focuses the light from the semi-conductor), cancerous cells change the
speed of the laser's light. This happens thanks to cancer cells' higher
protein content.
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- Gourley says surgeons will still use conventional scalpels
to remove the largest parts of tumors. But he notes that it's difficult
to determine where the edges of a tumor lie by depending on sight and
touch.
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- "The smart scalpel will be used to probe the tumor
margin and tell doctors where the remaining cancer cells are actually growing,"
says Gourley.
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- The device could revolutionize surgery to remove brain
cancers, where the need to limit damage to healthy tissues is crucial.
But Gourley says the device could also be useful for several cancers,
including breast cancer, skin cancer and certain blood cancers.
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- What To Do
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- Don't look for this on an operating table near you tomorrow.
Development of the smart scalpel could be months or years away. In the
meantime, surgeons will continue to use machines called flow cell cytometers
to determine whether cancer cells are present at a surgical site.
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- Unfortunately, these machines often don't give results
until after the surgery is completed and the patient is in recovery. But
it's better than nothing.
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- Check out this previous HealthSCOUT story about new drugs
that can actually starve cancer cells to death.
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- The American Cancer Society has a page dedicated to information
about various types of cancer surgeries.
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