Plan to improve cancer care and surgery by magnetising patients
SCIENTISTS hope to improve the effectiveness of keyhole surgery and cancer treatment by making patients magnetic.
Giving tissue magnetic properties would allow better imaging before and during an operation, experts believe.
Applied to tumours, it could also help surgeons avoid "spilling" cancer cells that may spread.
The development of keyhole surgery has done much to reduce post-operative pain, scarring and the risk of infection, but surgeons are restricted in what they can see and feel, and in the range of instruments that will fit in the "keyhole".
Researchers at Dundee University are investigating ways to make keyhole surgeons easier and more effective by magnetising tissue operated on.
"If the tissue can be magnetised, this opens up therapeutic avenues in dealing with disorders such as small cancers," research leader Prof Sir Alfred Cuschieri told the Engineer magazine.
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Last updated: 14-Aug-06 02:02 BST
