Brain surgery is a gamble, but the odds just got better!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Removing brain tumors is tricky — surgeons can’t immediately tell the difference between cancerous and healthy brain cells. But wait…
Enter Dr. Sachi Maeda and team from Nagoya University.
They developed a system to rapidly distinguish cancer from healthy cells by targeting certain DNA sequences. Specifically, they looked for particular gene mutations associated with brain cancer cells!
During surgery, the research team obtained tissue from different brain regions containing tumors. Within twenty-five minutes, their system could tell the surgeon where the tumor ends and healthy brain begins!
Taking out some of the guesswork? Now that’s some true brain power!
Reference: Maeda, S., Kitano, Y., Ohka, F., Motomura, K., Aoki, K., Deguchi, S., Shiba, Y., Seki, M., Ikeda, Y., Shimizu, H., Iwami, K., Takeuchi, K., Nagata, Y., Yamaguchi, J., Kimura, K., Takido, Y., Yamamoto, R., Nakamura, A., Ito, S., … Saito, R. (2025). Rapid intraoperative genetic analysis of adult-type diffuse gliomas using a microfluidic real-time polymerase chain reaction device. Neuro-Oncology, noaf188. https://doi.org/10.1093/neuonc/noaf188