Students at London’s Imperical College have developed a surgical knife that can detect cancer within seconds. They call it the iKnife that stands for “Intelligent Knife.” The wand like device can detect where the cancerous tissue lies in the body and whether it has been removed or not. Zoltan Takats is the key brain behind the device. He says that the iKnife will pace up cancer surgeries and will make it more effective and efficient.
iKnife is like an electric scalpel, just it’s more hi-tech. As the knife cuts the tissue the smoke from burnt tissue is sucked by a tube attached to it. This smoke is used to analyse the tissue and identify whether it is cancerous or not. There are two lights green and red, if the red flashes then its cancer and if green flashes then it’s a healthy tissue.
Right now iKnife is being tested in three hospitals named Hammersmith, St Mary’s and Charing Cross hospitals which are located in London. We just hope that the device is a success and could be used in hospitals to help the patients suffering with cancer.