This breakthrough, details of which are published on June 28 in the American Association for Cancer Research journal Cancer Research, is the outcome of collaborative efforts between engineer Frédéric Leblond and neurosurgical oncology specialist Dr. Kevin Petrecca. The research team has now perfected the invention and designed a new device with improved accuracy, sensitivity and specificity, capable of detecting different types of cancer (100% vs 90%).
In intraoperative testing, the multimodal optical spectroscopy probe detected cancer cells infallibly, with nearly 100 per cent sensitivity—in other words, when pointed at a cancerous region, the probe is never wrong.
First developed in 2015 and tested on more than 80 patients during surgery, the probe has now been perfected by its inventors. The new version is multimodal, also using intrinsic fluorescence spectroscopy to interpret the metabolic composition of the cells, as well as diffuse reflectance spectroscopy to analyze intrinsic tissue absorption in patients.
“Our findings are novel since optical techniques are not standard in any surgery at present,” said Petrecca. “The results also indicate a strong potential for this technology to be adapted to a wide range of surgical and detection applications, including laparoscopic and robotic surgery, and colonoscopy.”
A clinical trial is under way.
Read the press release ...
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