There’s little room for error when it comes to removing brain tumours, which is why a new ‘smart scalpel’ developed by a researcher in Belgium is looking so promising: it enables surgeons to distinguish between cancerous and healthy tissue in the brain in a matter of seconds.
It’s not actually a scalpel as such: it’s more of a pen-style scanner, with a spherical tip less than 1 millimetre across. By passing the device across the surface of the brain, doctors can detect exactly where the tumour is and remove it more accurately. So far, it’s only been tested on artificial tumours and brain tissue from pigs, but the results are impressive enough to suggest that it could be adapted for use on humans too.
From our very good friends over at sciencealert.com
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