'Intelligent' knife detects cancer

Surgeons at the Imperial College London have helped develop what they are labelling an 'intelligent knife' that can detect cancer.

The i-knife produces smoke that is vaporised tissue, which is then analysed and its molecules examined by a mass spectrometer, and within a couple of seconds surgeons are alerted to whether a tissue is cancerous.

Early trials have shown that the iknife was 100 per cent accurate in determining a tissue's health, but the technology is still undergoing patient trials in three London hospitals and it might not become available for another couple of years.

Imperial College's head of surgery Professor Jeremy Nicholson said the iknife was one of the biggest steps forward in cancer surgery.

“Because what we are doing is adapting something already happens from a procedure point of view to generating completely new knowledge for diagnostics that simply wasn't there before," Mr Nicholson said.

In the future, the iknife, it said will help patients have safer and more accurate surgeries as it will reduce the change of the incorrect tissues being removed, and it might even help during those early diagnostics investigations.