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A new laser system that could help surgeons remove cancer more accurately and safely is being developed by scientists.
Experts at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh are developing a new system that will help surgeons distinguish cancer cells with much better resolution and remove them without damaging surrounding healthy tissue.
Professor Jonathan Shephard has been awarded £ 1.2million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to develop the system.
The new system will be based on ultra-fast picosecond lasers that deliver energy in a series of pulses one trillion seconds long.
The team has already proven that the concept works for colorectal cancers and are now working with clinicians at the University of Leeds and the Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust to develop the new system for brain cancers.
Learn more about cancer:
“Previously, we focused on colorectal cancers. We have proven in the lab that our laser system can kill cancer cells in a way that limits damage to surrounding healthy cells – within the width of a human hair, ”said Professor Shephard.
“Because the laser pulses are so short, there is no time for the heat to burn the surrounding tissue, which occurs with current surgical tools.
“We are building on our understanding of lasers in colorectal cancer surgery towards clinical application, and working to adapt it to cancers of the brain, head and neck, where this could have enormous benefits for patients.
“The most important principle of any cancer surgery is to make sure that all cancer cells are eliminated; if you don’t, the cancer will come back.
“This is an ultimate test of accuracy, even microscopic loss of healthy tissue and damage to nearby vital structures can have serious functional consequences and a huge impact on quality of life.”
The team will also focus on developing a flexible fiber-optic-based system that can target and eliminate cancer cells two orders of magnitude smaller than current technology over the next three years.
Reader’s Questions & Answers: How Does Radiation Kill Cancer If It Causes It?
Asked by: Odysseus Ray Lopez, US
It’s kind of like how guns can be used to commit or stop crime. Radiation causes cancer because its high-energy photons can cause DNA strands in your cells to break down. Cells can repair this damage to a point, but sometimes the repair is not perfect and leaves some genes defective.
If the rupture affects one of the many tumor suppressor genes in your DNA, that cell can become cancerous. But cancer cells are also more vulnerable to radiation than regular cells. Part of what makes cancer cells is their ability to divide quickly, which normally means that some of DNA’s spell-checking mechanisms are turned off.
So when a cancer cell breaks in a strand of DNA, it is less likely to repair it properly. Depending on where the rupture occurs, it can either kill the cell outright or cause it to reproduce more slowly.
Radiation therapy uses a focused beam that targets only the part of the body with the tumor, and the dose is carefully calculated to cause minimal collateral damage to healthy cells. Even so, radiation therapy very slightly increases your chances of developing a second cancer.
Read more:
· Do Modern LCD TVs Emit Harmful Radiation?
· Which cell phone emits the least amount of radiation?
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