MasSpec Pen Shows Promise in Pancreatic Cancer Surgery utexas.edu - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from utexas.edu Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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IMAGE: Dr. James Suliburk, head of endocrine surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, using the MasSpec Pen during a surgery. view more
Credit: James Suliburk/Baylor College of Medicine
AUSTIN, Texas A diagnostic tool called the MasSpec Pen has been tested for the first time in pancreatic cancer patients during surgery. The device is shown to accurately identify tissues and surgical margins directly in patients and differentiate healthy and cancerous tissue from banked pancreas samples. At about 15 seconds per analysis, the method is more than 100 times as fast as the current gold standard diagnostic, Frozen Section Analysis. The ability to accurately identify margins between healthy and cancerous tissue in pancreatic cancer surgeries can give patients the greatest chance of survival.