According to scientists at the University of Texas, the United States, a new handheld medical device can identify cancer in tissue in just 10 seconds, which could make surgery to remove a tumor quicker, safer and more precise. Tests suggest that the medical “pen”, called MasSpec Pen, is accurate 96% of the time. It takes advantage of the unique metabolism of cancer cells.
Their furious drive to grow and spread means their internal chemistry is very different to that of healthy tissue. The pen is touched on to a suspected cancer and releases a tiny droplet of water.Chemicals inside the living cells move into the droplet, which is then sucked back up the pen for analysis.
The pen is plugged into a mass spectrometer – a piece of kit that can measure the mass of thousands of chemicals every second. It produces a chemical fingerprint that tells doctors whether they are looking at healthy tissue or cancer. The challenge for surgeons is finding the border between the cancer and normal tissue.
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Medical “pen” identifies cancerous tissue
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