England (Commonwealth Union) – The improvement of technology has given researchers the tools develop more sophisticated and less invasive surgical tools that could make surgeries less complex in the coming years ahead. A tiny microscope produced by Imperial College London, that can be steered via small bodily spaces as the surgery takes place, has moved to its next phase of laboratory trials.
The endo-microscope was designed to be inserted into the body to display tissues and organs. The tool gives images with extraordinary speed. Researchers stated that the new technology, currently undergoing laboratory testing on human cancer tissues, may potentially enhance the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.
The multi-wavelength endo-microscope and accompanying image acquisition and classification software was produced as part of the 5-year Micro-Robotics for Surgery programme by Dr Khushi Vyas and team at Imperial College London. It was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation.
The application of safe and rapid staining dyes, makes the possibility of the endo-microscope to produce real-time histology-like images of tissue micro-architecture during surgery with no requirement to excise any tissue. If the human trials bring about the expected result, it could lower reoperation rates, unneeded removal of healthy tissue and possibly elevate the number of patients seen.
The scientists applied their system for preliminary studies on human cancer tissue and are currently testing its applications by surgeons and pathologists on laboratory cancerous tissue samples. “A key focus of this EPSRC-funded work has been the development of hardware and accompanying tissue staining and classification protocols enabling the new system to generate diagnostic relevant tissue images at 120 frames per second – a huge leap forward in terms of image acquisition,” explained Dr Vyas of the Imperial College London, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Hamlyn Centre.
