When surgeons remove a tumor, the search for every last cancer cell is critical. The diseased tissue can be difficult to distinguish from the healthy.
Now researchers have developed high-tech goggles that allow doctors to see tumors glowing under infrared light. “As soon as they open the body, they will see the cancer tissue light up,” says Samuel Achilefu, the brains behind the goggles and a professor of radiology, biomedical engineering, biochemistry, and molecular biophysics at Washington University in St. Louis. “It’s clear what they need to take out.”
Inspired by night-vision glasses developed by the military, Achilefu came up with the idea about four years ago after listening to group of frustrated doctors discuss the problems of operating on patients using only static anatomic images. “They basically have to operate in the dark,” he says. “I thought, what if we create something that lets you see things that aren’t available to the ordinary human eye?”
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