Light, Wireless Probes Hunt Down Cancer Cells During Surgery

When surgeons remove a malignant tumor, they have to be sure to get all the cancer cells and determine whether the tumor has already sent micrometastases into the neighboring lymph nodes. EPFL, in partnership with the University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV), has developed two compact, light, and wireless probes that help doctors with both of these tasks. The Gamma probe improves on similar devices already in use in radio-guided surgery, and the Beta probe is a new type of device able to detect extremely small bits of cancerous tissue. The two probes, measuring 20 centimeters long and weighing 100 grams, are easy to work with and to insert into the surgical wound. The probes guide the surgeon with auditory signals similar to those of a Geiger counter, accurately locating what the human eye often cannot see.

Transcript

00:00:04 we have developed the back end of the probe for gamma and positron detection uh that is ultra miniaturized and sterilizable and is therefore very appropriate for use in an operating room in many different type of cancer surgery is still the best way to cure the patient and in very early disease for instance like melanoma we want to remove potentially infected

00:00:30 lymph node that could Harbor tumors the advantage of radioguided surgery is we can focus our surgery just on one point on one lymph node because the pictures of the nuclear medicine will show us where to go and with the probe and also this Wireless probe we can just go in few centimeters and millimeters just on the lymph node Guided by the probe to get the same information before we had

00:00:58 to remove all the lymph nodes just to discover one for example we have developed the back end of the probe that is the electronics that is interpreting the data coming from the probe and sending them wirelessly to a PC the reason why we did that is because it allowed us to have a easy and uh very convenient interface between the probe and the

00:01:27 external world and also because it is is making the probe fully sterilizable which is very important condition