The MasSpec Pen works by analyzing metabolites, small molecules produced by all cells. Cancers produce specific metabolites, which can be identified by the pen’s mass spectrometer. When the device is done reading, the words “cancer” or “normal” appear on a computer screen. For some types of cancers, the device will also tell surgeons the specific subtype.
The research was published this month in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
So far MasSpec Pen has only been tested on tissues in the laboratory. The team will begin human trials in 2018.
“We still haven’t proved that it’s going to work inside the operating room,” Suliburk says.
Getting a new device into the sterile field of the operating room is a logistic challenge: where does it go relative to other pieces of equipment? Where do you put the power source? How can it be cleaned to ensure it doesn’t introduce germs? And then, of course, there’s the bigger question: will it work the same way in live patients as it does with tissue in a lab?
With all the testing to be done, even with optimal results, it will still be at least several more years before MasSpec Pen could be ready for use in a real operating room. The researchers and UT Austin have applied for patents for the technology.
But if it proves successful in trials, it could be a “game-changer,” Suliburk says.
“We’re changing up something that has been done the same way in surgery for half a century,” he says. “I think probably Harvey Cushing’s invention of the electrocautery almost 100 years ago is the last thing that was as revolutionary as this could be.”
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/scientists-invent-pen-can-detect-cancer-seconds-180964947/#D4YCKgaP4SFGuPqc.99