News JVTech A connected scalpel that sniffs out tumors and saves lives
Published on 09/01/2023 at 07:35
You didn’t understand anything, and that’s normal. The info seems very weird, but don’t worry, we’ll explain everything to you. What is certain is that this small object could change the way in which we spot cancers.
The iKnife, a knife that can smell cancer
This information sounds more like a kamoulox than anything else, but trust me. The treatment of cancerous tumors is progressing day by day and here is a small object which should represent a real step forward towards faster and easier detection of these diseases. Concretely, it is a device in the form of a penwith at its end a very small blade, resembling a scalpel.
Called the iKnife, it has nothing to do with Apple products, even if the name is misleading. Second trap, it is not a knife as such either, but more of a scent tip. It is this tip that will take on its full importance. By taking a very small portion of tissue from the area considered suspicious, simply place the tool on the surface.
In this way, the iKnife, which is both electric and connected, is able to heat the sample taken and capture the odors it gives off. By sniffing the vapours, the device is able to detect possible cancerous cells according to the presence or absence of lipids. Indeed, the harmful cells need it to continue their proliferation continuously.
The detection processor is surprisingly fast, allowing the doctor toget results immediately the removal of tissues beforehand also requiring little time.
Which cancers are concerned, and when will it be democratized?
Attention, for now, this is only a way to get information quickly, but the iKnife is not yet able to completely replace existing diagnostic methods, such as ultrasounds or MRIs. Still very uncommon, the iKnife has already been used by doctors in English hospitals to treat cancer of the breast, uterus, colon, and more recently of the endometrium, fourth most common cancer in women in France.
A recently published article by the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London mentions a study carried out on 150 samples performed by the iKnife to detect endometrial cancer. Among these 150 samples, the cancer was identified with an accuracy of 89% on average.
The process is almost instantaneous, and that’s the huge advantage of this kind of tool. The existing method for diagnosing endometrial cancer currently takes between one and two weeks of microscopic analysis.
