Cancer is one of the most loathed illnesses in the world. Once your 'C' cells were activated, chances are you cannot totally get rid of them. But a newly developed '"ntelligent" knife can put an end to the ever re-occurring cancer tumors, BBC reports.
The Imperial College's group of surgeons modified the classic surgical knife into an 'iKnife'. The newly developed tool is design to 'sniff' tissues infected of cancer in just a few seconds. This new tool is expected to be the solution in the dilemma of leaving bits of tumors in a patient's body.
iKnife's early result published in Science Translation Medicine journal concluded that the tailored and enhanced blade 'can accurately identify cancerous tissues on the spot'. iKnife has been tested on 91 patients and the new tool was able to tell if the tissue is healthy or not.
Currently, the new knife's ability to save lives is still being studied, though, The Imperial College has high hopes for the iKnife. "We believe it has the potential to reduce tumour recurrence rates and enable more patients to survive," Dr. Zoltan Takats said.
As the surgeon who invented the iKnife system, Takats said the positive finding is "compelling evidence that the iKnife can be applied in a wide range of cancer surgery procedures."
Getting rid of recurring cancer tumors has been a difficult task for surgeons. According to Tech Republic, facts even said doctors were not able to remove traces of the tumors in almost one in three breast cancer operations. This is because the medical experts are just relying on medical imaging and data gathered prior to the surgery which are not enough to know the exact location of cancerous tumors.
In case iKnife will succeed in its diverse scientific trials, the tool will highly help in eradicating tumors. But how does it work? The electroknife uses heat to cut through tissues and the smoke that the heat will create will be sifted by the iKnife's nose.
The intelligent knife's nose called mass spectrometer will suck in the smoke from the burned tissue. Through the smoke, the iKnife will be able to distinguish if the tissue is infected by cancer or not. The gathered tissue will be available automatically to the surgeon thus, improving level of accuracy.
Takat's iKnife is not the first electroknife as such tools have been in use since the 1920's. After more trials, the surgeon said the modified surgical blade will be "ready to start by the beginning of 2016."
