• Question: you've stated that the iKnife is successful in dealing with brain tumors, however because the brain is so sensitive and has so many nerves which, if damaged can cause life changing conditions, isn't it a dangerous process to locate the tumor- because it only tells you where and what kind of tumor it is if you cut into it ? also, i wondering if you could explain in further detail how the iKnife and computer detect the unique smoke signatures?

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      Asked by maria to Michael on 20 Nov 2015.
      • Photo: Michael Kyriakides

        Michael Kyriakides answered on 20 Nov 2015:

        @maria – Great question. Basically, the i-knife doesn’t present an additional risk since the surgeon would have to cut out the tumour anyhow. It just provides more information so that we know when the tumour ends and where the healthy tissue starts (in order to ensure that all of the cancer is removed). It works by essentially comparing the metabolites (small molecules) of the tumour to those of healthy tissues and those of other tumours. This is done with multivariate statistics and depending on the similarity, we can determine if the tissue is cancerous or not. Hope it makes sense!

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