Wearable glasses enable surgeons to visualize cancerous cells

A wearable technology developed by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine may help surgeons to visualize cancer cells, which will help to ensure that no stray tumor cells are left behind during surgical procedures.

In the current surgery standard, surgeons remove tumors and neighboring tissues that may or may not include cancer cells, and these samples are sent to a pathology lab and viewed under a microscope. If cancer cells are found in the neighboring tissue, follow-up surgeries are often required.

The new glasses—developed by a team led by Samuel Achilefu, Phd, professor of radiology and of biomedical engineering—feature custom video technology and a head-mounted display, and are designed to make it easier for surgeons to distinguish cancer cells from healthy cells. While they are in the early stages of development, breast surgeon Julie Margenthaler, MD, an associate professor of surgery at the university, said that the team is encouraged by early tests and the potential benefits to patients.

"Imagine what it would mean if these glasses eliminated the need for follow-up surgery and the associated pain, inconvenience and anxiety," she said in the Washington University press release.

The prototype system features a KLK200 white LED light source from Leica for illumination during all procedures, with excitation light for fluorescence provided by M780L2 and LEDD1B LEDs from Thorlabs. For the camera, the prototype was equipped with a monochrome 0.3 MPixel Firefly MV camera from Point Grey. The model (FMVU-03MTM-CS) features a 1/3” Micron MR9V022 CMOS image sensor with a 6 µm x 6 µm pixel size. The 752 x 480 pixel camera also features a frame rate of 60 fps, pixel binning and region of interest modes, 8-bit, and 16-bit digital image data output, and a USB 2.0 interface for camera control, video data, and power, according to a research paper written on the projecte that was published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics.

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