Surgical iKnife used to target cancer tissue

From Medical Xpress:

Cancers are often heavily reliant on breaking down fats for their growth and spread, and could be treated by a highly innovative combination of new drugs and dietary changes, a major new study concludes.

The landmark research used a surgical ‘iKnife’ to analyze vaporized cancer tissue—and identified a metabolic weakness in cancer that could be amenable to a new metabolic treatment.

Researchers found that targeting cancer’s ability to process fat using a new class of drugs could halt tumor growth in mice, but only when combined with a diet free of fats.

The study, led by scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and colleagues at Imperial College London, opens up the possibility of ‘drugs and diet’ cancer treatments—combining precision medicine and dietary changes.

But the researchers stress that the proposed dietary changes would only apply in combination with a specific new class of drugs—and that they are not suggesting they would have any benefit in any other clinical context.

The research also showed the potential for the iKnife to instantly pick out tumors with the metabolic weakness during surgery by analyzing the smoke given off as tissue is burned during excisions.

Story source: Medical Xpress.

Featured image credit: Jereon Claus.

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