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| Dr. Achilefu receiving his award |
Dr. Achilefu, a professor of
radiology and biomedical engineering, and his team developed the imaging
technology in cancer diagnosis into a wearable night vision-like goggle,s so
surgeons could see the cancer cells while operating.
““I thought what if we create
something that lets you see things that aren’t available to the ordinary human
eye. They basically have to operate in the dark,” Bloomberg Businessweek quoted Dr. Achilefu, 52, as saying.
Dr. Achilefu won a scholarship from
the French government to study at the University of Nancy, according to St.
Louis Post-Dispatch, a regional newspaper in St. Louis, U.S., and is the 87th
person to receive the annual award since it was established in 1931.
Dr. Achilefu later moved to St.
Louis after he was hired by Mallinckrodt to start a new research department.
“Our efforts start with two words:
‘What if?'” Dr. Achilefu said during his acceptance speech.
“These words may sound simple, but
they embody the belief that each person has the potential to make a difference,
if only he or she can take the time to understand the problem.”
According to Bloomberg, the
researchers’ technology requires two steps: First, surgeons inject a tiny
quantity of an infrared fluorescent marker into the patient’s bloodstream. The
peptides contained in the marker enables it to locate cancer cells and buries
itself inside.
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| testing the goggle in the laboratory |
After the tracer flows through a patient’s
body and clears from non-cancerous tissue – which lasts about four hours – the
operation would begin. Wearing the goggle, the doctor can inspect tumours under
an infra red light that reacts with the dye, causing cancer cells to glow from
within.
This month, the goggles have been
used on humans for the first time by surgeons at the Washington University
School of Medicine.
Four patients suffering from breast
cancer and over two dozen patients with melanoma or liver cancer have been
operated on using the goggles since they were developed.
“The goggles function
fantastically,” says Ryan Fields, a surgical oncologist who is collaborating
with Dr. Achilefu to improve on the technology.
“They allow us to see the cells in
real time, which is critical. Because the marker has not yet been FDA-approved,
doctors are currently using a different, somewhat inferior marker that also
reacts with infrared light.”
Julie Margenthaler, a breast cancer
surgeon, says tens of thousands of women who had had breast cancer lumpectomies
go back for second operations every year because of the inability to see the
microscopic extent of the tumours.
“Imagine what it would mean if these
glasses eliminated the need for follow-up surgery and the associated pain,
inconvenience and anxiety.”
Dr. Achilefu and his team began work
in 2012 after they received $2.8 million grant from the National Institutes of
Health, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Before then, they had been working
on a lean budget provided by the Department of Defence’s Breast Cancer Research
Program.
After it was developed, the team
spent years testing the technology on mice, rats, and rabbits to confirm the
efficacy of the goggles.
“Nobody would believe us until we
showed that the goggles work,” Dr. Achilefu says.
The Food and Drug Administration are
still reviewing the goggles and a related dye Dr. Achilefu and his
co-researchers developed, according to Washington University in St. Louis, a
St. Louis based journal.
Dr. Achilefu says he intends to keep
Washington University as the primary centre for clinical trials to evaluate the
technology in patients.
“Making a difference in society
should be the goal of everybody,” Dr. Achilefu
Credit: PT
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