The pen that detects cancer in 10 seconds

A device that can quickly detect cancer during surgery has been developed by scientists from the University of Texas at Austin.

The MasSpec Pen is a handheld device that surgeons can use to accurately identify cancerous tissue more than 150 times faster than existing technology.  

The current method (Frozen Section Analysis) for identifying cancerous and normal tissue is slow, occasionally inaccurate and unreliable for certain types of cancers. Samples can take over 30 minutes to be analysed by a pathologist, increasing the risk to patients and negative effects of anaesthesia.

Surgeons can use the pen to obtain diagnostic information, letting them know what tissue to cut or preserve. This can help improve surgery and reduce the chance of the cancer returning.

An analysis of the device showed that the pen was 96% accurate when used on 253 human cancer patients.

Livia Schiavinato Eberlin, who designed the study and led the team, said: “If you talk to cancer patients after surgery, one of the first things many will say is 'I hope the surgeon got all the cancer out. It's just heartbreaking when that's not the case. But our technology could vastly improve the odds that surgeons really do remove every last trace of cancer during surgery.”

The MasSpec Pen works by analysing metabolites and other biomarkers that each type of cancer produces. It does this by releasing a droplet of water onto the tissue in which molecules migrate. The device then deposits the water into a mass spectrometer which analyses the molecules. After, the words “Normal” or “Cancer” show on a computer screen to inform the surgeon.

"Cancer cells have dysregulated metabolism as they're growing out of control," says Eberlin. "Because the metabolites in cancer and normal cells are so different, we extract and analyse them with the MasSpec Pen to obtain a molecular fingerprint of the tissue. What is incredible is that through this simple and gentle chemical process, the MasSpec Pen rapidly provides diagnostic molecular information without causing tissue damage."

"Any time we can offer the patient a more precise surgery, a quicker surgery or a safer surgery, that's something we want to do," says James Suliburk, head of endocrine surgery at Baylor College of Medicine and a collaborator on the project. "This technology does all three. It allows us to be much more precise in what tissue we remove and what we leave behind."

The team’s research was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. They expect to start testing the device during oncologic surgeries next year and are pursing US and worldwide patent applications.