Is the pen mightier than the scalpel, particularly for cancer surgery?The recent research has established that as a surgeon’s goal is to remove cancer in its entirety during excision surgery, achieving negative margins (absence of cancer cells at the outer edge of the excised tumor specimen) can be challenging. To facilitate intraoperative diagnosis, Zhang et al.developed a handheld pen-like device that rapidly identifies the molecular profile of tissues using a small volume water droplet and mass spectrometry analysis replacing old present technique of frozen biopsy which is not available in many centres and even if present trained pathologist who can accurately diagnose are hardly available in operation theater.
After 3 s of gentle physical contact with a tissue surface, the water droplet is transported to a mass spectrometer, which characterizes diagnostic proteins, lipids, and…
