Researchers at the University of Adelaide have invented an optical fibre probe that could help surgeons distinguish between breast cancer and healthy tissue during operations.
Up to 20 per cent of patients need follow-up surgery for breast cancer because some of the cancerous tissue is left behind.
University of Adelaide postdoctoral researcher Doctor Erik Schartner said in other cases, surgeons were inadvertently removing too much healthy tissue, which led to its own detrimental effects on the body.
“The methods surgeons use at the moment are really limited … radiology during the operation but the main diagnostic procedure is done through pathology,” he said.
“They will get the results back between two days and a couple weeks after the procedure is completed.
“They’ll have the patient back in for a second follow-up surgery which is very traumatic to the patient and very expensive to the health system.”
By comparison, Dr Schartner said the probe almost instantly identified cancerous tissue from healthy cells.
“[The surgeon] places it in contact with a section of tissue where they’re not sure whether or not it’s healthy or cancerous, and it gives an immediate indication of whether they need to excise more tissue,” he said.
Cell acidity key to cancer identification
The probe works by identifying the acidity of cells. Cancerous tissue is usually more acidic because it produces lactic acid during its aggressive growth.
“One of the things we’re keen to do is try to broaden the scope outside of the breast cancer space we’ve been looking at so far,” Dr Schartner said.
“One of the really promising ones is thyroid cancer … or things like sarcomas, which should display the same sort of behaviour in that the cancer tissue is more acidic than the healthy tissue.”
The probe has been tested on human tissue and the researchers hope to start clinical trials soon.
The research team was composed largely of physicists at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics, and the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing, which worked with the university’s medical school.
Their findings have been published in the journal Cancer Research
This post originally appeared on ABC News.
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