Researchers from Dalhousie University have designed groundbreaking new technology to help fight brain cancer.
The tool, a world’s first, allows surgeons to see brain tumours ten times the resolution than MRI and CT scans.
The device, 3mm by 3mm is inserted through a small hole created in the skull, which allows surgeons to get a direct path to the tumour to surgically remove it.
Dr. Jeremy Brown, an associate professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, led the team that is already designing a second feature that would vaporize tumors using sound waves.
He said he was inspired to create the device after his PhD supervisor was diagnosed with brain cancer over 10 years ago.
“My PhD. Supervisor, Dr. Geoff Lockwood, was diagnosed with a glioblastoma brain tumour and given just 1-2 years to live following surgery,” says Dr. Brown. “When he told me that his cancer was terminal, I couldn’t believe that there was nothing that could be done. As a result, I started to look into this particular pathology more and more to see what improvements in treatment and patient survival could be made.”
Engineering students have been working on the device over the past year.
According to Dalhousie 27 people are diagnosed with brain tumors every day.
