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06:03Last update on: 12 Aug 2013
The Namibian
Mon 12 Aug 2013
SMS Of The Day * MINISTRY of Gender and Child Welfare, TEARS are rolling down as I write this SMS. The killing of women in Namibia is now like reciting a poem. Are we really getting the protection we deserve while women not being treated as part of this c Food For Thought * SO the Zimbabwe elections were free and peaceful and not free and fair? Bouquets And Brickbats * NURSES at Katutura Hospital must stop wearing those big plastic sandals at work because they are not the official working shoes. We want to see you looking smart and beautiful with your full uniform. SMS Of The Day * THIS nation is in dire need of a massive conference on housing. When we experienced a crisis in the education sector a crisis-control brain-storming conference was organised which resulted in the best deal ever for the Namibian child, nam Food For Thought * BOURGEOISIE has become a daily occupation if not the order of the day of the upper-echelons, President Hifikepunye Pohamba we urge you to revisit this unpatriotic geocentricism among your staff and the well-connected, for everybody to r Bouquets And Brickbats * COMMISSIONER of Prisons, can you please explain the strategies you use to appoint officers to certain positions? It is my observation that you are being fed with wrong information then you just promote individuals without making p SMS Of The Day * I THINK Paulus ‘The Rock’ Ambunda lost his belt because of this promoter and trainer. How can a world champion still be training at the Katutura Youth Complex where there is not enough equipment. I think they must follow the example of Ha Food For Thought * NAMIBIA Dairies are unable to match low prices of imported milk and this ultimately means the consumer will have to pay more for local milk. Look at the prices of the local chicken. All these profits are going in the pockets of a few in Bouquets And Brickbats * I AM pleased to hear that Cabinet has responded positively to the proposal of Namibia Dairies to support the industry. The restrictions which support the industry by reducing competition to ensure the survival of the industry is a SMS Of The Day * CEO’s golden handshakes. Somewhere on our statute books there must be a provision that if a board of directors suspends/dismisses a CEO without due regard to legal provision (substantive/procedural law) such board must carry the costs for Food For Thought * JACKY Asheeke was so right with her last column- why are the fathers of the dead children not being prosecuted? (Reference to the children who died in shack fires last week) Our justice system still protects men over women. In this cont Bouquets And Brickbats * ALEXACTUS Kaure, your column in Friday’s newspaper opened my eyes. One hardly finds impartial case study analysers in Namibia. Let’s not destroy the Polytechnic’s strong foundation (Tjivikua) as yet. At least wait until the transf
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SCIENCE -
| 2013-07-26
‘Intelligent’ surgical knife can sniff out cancer tissue
Surgical knife
Scientists have created an ‘intelligent’ surgical knife that can detect in seconds whether tissue being cut is cancerous, promising more effective and accurate surgery in future.
The device, built by researchers at London’s Imperial College, could allow doctors to cut back on additional operations to remove further pieces of cancerous tumours.
The technology, effectively merging an electrosurgical knife that cuts through tissue using heat with a mass spectrometer for chemical analysis, has also been shown to be able to distinguish beef from horse meat.
Surgeons often find it impossible to tell by sight where tumours end and healthy tissue begins, so some cancer cells are often left behind. A fifth of breast cancer patients who have lumpectomy surgery need a second operation.
The new ‘iKnife’ is designed to get round the problem by instantly sampling the smoke given off as tissue is cut through using an electric current to see if it is cancerous.
In the first study to test the device in patients, the iKnife diagnosed tissue samples from 91 patients with 100 per cent accuracy, researchers at Imperial College London reported in Science Translational Medicine.
Currently, removed tissue can be sent for laboratory analysis while the patient remains under general anaesthetic – but each test takes around half an hour, while the iKnife provides feedback in less than three seconds.
It does this by analysing biological information given off from burning tissue and comparing the findings to a database of biological fingerprints from tumours and healthy tissue.
“It’s a really exciting innovation and a very promising technique for all types of surgery,” said Emma King, a head and neck surgeon at Southampton Hospital, England, who was not involved in the research.
Still, she now wants to see how the iKnife performs in a randomised clinical trial.
Zoltan Takats of Imperial College, who invented the device, said he aimed to test it in such a study, involving between 1 000 and 1 500 patients with various types of cancers.
That trial process is likely to take two or three years and only then will the iKnife be submitted for regulatory approval, paving the way for its commercialisation.
Takats has founded a Budapest-based company called MediMass to develop the product and he expects to strike a partnership deal with a major medical technology company to bring it to market in North America and Europe.
Hi-tech surgical equipment is being used increasingly in modern hospitals to help surgeons do a better job, most notably with the Da Vinci surgical robot from Intuitive Surgical.
The current experimental version of the iKnife cost Takats and colleagues at Imperial around US$300 000 to build. Takats said the price would come down once it entered commercial production.
The iKnife may also have a place beyond cancer, according to Takats, since it can identify tissue with an inadequate blood supply, as well as types of bacteria present in tissue.
– Nampa-Reuters
The technology, effectively merging an electrosurgical knife that cuts through tissue using heat with a mass spectrometer for chemical analysis, has also been shown to be able to distinguish beef from horse meat.
Surgeons often find it impossible to tell by sight where tumours end and healthy tissue begins, so some cancer cells are often left behind. A fifth of breast cancer patients who have lumpectomy surgery need a second operation.
The new ‘iKnife’ is designed to get round the problem by instantly sampling the smoke given off as tissue is cut through using an electric current to see if it is cancerous.
In the first study to test the device in patients, the iKnife diagnosed tissue samples from 91 patients with 100 per cent accuracy, researchers at Imperial College London reported in Science Translational Medicine.
Currently, removed tissue can be sent for laboratory analysis while the patient remains under general anaesthetic – but each test takes around half an hour, while the iKnife provides feedback in less than three seconds.
It does this by analysing biological information given off from burning tissue and comparing the findings to a database of biological fingerprints from tumours and healthy tissue.
“It’s a really exciting innovation and a very promising technique for all types of surgery,” said Emma King, a head and neck surgeon at Southampton Hospital, England, who was not involved in the research.
Still, she now wants to see how the iKnife performs in a randomised clinical trial.
Zoltan Takats of Imperial College, who invented the device, said he aimed to test it in such a study, involving between 1 000 and 1 500 patients with various types of cancers.
That trial process is likely to take two or three years and only then will the iKnife be submitted for regulatory approval, paving the way for its commercialisation.
Takats has founded a Budapest-based company called MediMass to develop the product and he expects to strike a partnership deal with a major medical technology company to bring it to market in North America and Europe.
Hi-tech surgical equipment is being used increasingly in modern hospitals to help surgeons do a better job, most notably with the Da Vinci surgical robot from Intuitive Surgical.
The current experimental version of the iKnife cost Takats and colleagues at Imperial around US$300 000 to build. Takats said the price would come down once it entered commercial production.
The iKnife may also have a place beyond cancer, according to Takats, since it can identify tissue with an inadequate blood supply, as well as types of bacteria present in tissue.
– Nampa-Reuters
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