Device IDs cancer cells in the doctor’s office

A handheld miniature microscope being developed by University of Washington mechanical engineers could allow surgeons to ‘see’ at a cellular level in the operating room and determine where to stop cutting

Surgeons removing a malignant brain tumour don’t want to leave cancerous material behind. But they’re also trying to protect healthy brain matter and minimize neurological harm.

Once they open up a patient’s skull, there’s no time to send tissue samples to a pathology to definitively distinguish between cancerous and normal brain cells.

The new technology is being developed in collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Stanford University and the Barrow Neurological Institute.

“Surgeons don’t have a very good way of knowing when they’re done cutting out a tumour,” said Jonathan Liu, UW assistant professor of mechanical engineering. “They’re using their sense of sight, their sense of touch, pre-operative images of the brain — and oftentimes it’s pretty subjective.

“Being able to zoom and see at the cellular level during the surgery would really help them to accurately differentiate between tumour and normal tissues and improve patient outcomes,” said Liu.

The handheld microscope, roughly the size of a pen, combines technologies in a novel way to deliver high-quality images at faster speeds than existing devices. Researchers expect to begin testing it as a cancer-screening tool in clinical settings next year.