Intelligent knife (iKnife) : To Diagnose Womb Cancer
New research led by the Imperial College of London has recently found an intelligent knife (iKnife), which can be used to diagnose womb cancer within minutes.
- According to the World Cancer Research Fund International, womb or endometrial cancer is the 6th most commonly occurring cancer among people with uteruses.
- The knife uses electric currents on biopsy tissue and then analyses the vapourised aerosols from the tissue in a mass spectrometer to give real-time information about activity in the tissue.
- The study noted that the knife reliably diagnosed endometrial cancer in tissue within seconds with an accuracy of 89%.
- This would greatly minimise the delays faced by patients who wait for a normal histopathological diagnosis.
