The scalpel could be in general use in breast cancer in three years and in
brain tumours in five years.
Dr Zoltan Takats, the inventor of the iKnife, said smaller machines are
already available and could be used in GP surgeries to test infections for
bacteria or viruses so doctors know whether to prescribe antibiotics.
Dr Takats said: “We are taking the instrument into the field to look at
samples of pretty much any object. It will give results in real time.
“It could be used to provide chemical information about almost anything.
“It will tell you if what you are looking at is bacteria, if it is poisonous,
the nutritional value of your food, the quality of water.
“In medicine the patient will come in and leave 10 minutes later with a
diagnosis.â€
The technology has been bought by the Waters Corporation, with a view to
producing the next generation of machines for clinical trials.
Prof Jeremy Nicholson, head of the department of surgery and cancer at ICL,
said: “At the moment the machine is the size of a fridge freezer on wheels
and costs about £250,000.
“It has an exhaust pipe attached to the knife which collects the smoke for
analysis.
“But it is possible to miniaturise it, some people have built a mass
spectrometer that is the size of a shoebox.
“We need to make it smaller, cheaper and more robust for real world use.
“Its applications are anything you can think of. It can detect horse meat in a
burger or melamine in milk. It could be used in beer manufacture, sewage
analysis or water quality testing.â€
Next year iKnife trials will begin on aggressive brain tumours known as
gliomas. The tumours look very similar to healthy brain tissue, making it
difficult for surgeons to determine if all the tumour has been removed.