Smart Knife Sniffs Out Cancer Cells

sciencehabit writes "When surgeons can't determine the edges of a tumor, it's a problem. Cut too much, and they risk hurting the patient. Cut too little, and they may leave stray cancer cells behind. Now, researchers have developed a surgical knife that can sniff the smoke made as it cuts tissue, almost instantly detecting whether cells are cancerous or healthy. The 'intelligent knife,' or iKnife could distinguish normal and tumor tissues from different organs, such as breast, liver, and brain, and could even identify the origin of a tumor that was a metastasis, a secondary growth seeded by a primary tumor elsewhere in the body."

Define cancer cell.

[i kan reed]

Seriously, if there were a truly defining characteristic of cancer cells, we'd be in a lot better shape to cure it. Cancer has a multitude of causes and phenotypes.

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[Xicor]

there may be different underlying causes as well as different types of cancer, but im sure there are markers that say "hey, this is cancerous".... wait... we already knew there were markers like that. if a doctor can tell if cells are cancerous, why shouldnt a computer be able to do it?

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[i kan reed]

to calibrate

Calibration depends on having an objective measure in the first place.

iDevice again?

[intermodal]

can somebody please pick another letter of the alphabet? e- wore itself out years ago, i- seems to be getting old. Time to move on to the next vowel? oKnife? Might be big in Ireland...

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[agrisea]

Sorry, I have a copyright on Xtreme.. :p

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[RoknrolZombie]

can somebody please pick another letter of the alphabet? e- wore itself out years ago, i- seems to be getting old. Time to move on to the next vowel? oKnife? Might be big in Ireland...

They'll change the name as soon as Apple sues them.

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[war4peace]

I would go for "yi".
Try saying "yiPhone" or "yiPad" - bam, instant recognition of your branded device :)

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[Beorytis]

I like it. Let's keep on diluting Apple's trademark claim to iAnything.

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[Hentes]

That would only work if Knife was an object, not an int.

iKnife?

[Aelanna]

"Siri, cut out this tumor, please." "Alright, let me remove that heart for you."

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[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

"Siri, cut out this tumor, please."

"Alright, I will cut ot two more pieces."

Replace the doctor with a robot

[schneidafunk]

Seriously, how close are we to having this precision surgery done by a robot.

That is amazing..

[houbou]

This means that surgeons will now have a new skill to learn as they must learn to recognize the signs and adapt their surgical styles to complement this new tool. Still, this is amazing.. It's like PhotoShop's Magic Wand for selecting pieces of a graphic, except this is for surgical cancer removal.. :)

Science Fiction Comes True

[ChrisMaple]

The Little Black Bag, C. M. Kornbluth, 1950 (Astounding Science Fiction).

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[rnturn]

Rod Serling's "Night Gallery" adapted that for TV. One of the earliest episodes, if memory serves.

Oblig

[ThatsNotPudding]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_(game) [wikipedia.org]