The tool – called the Cryosection Histopathology Assessment and Review Machine, or CHARM – studies images to quickly pick out the genetic profile of a kind of tumour called glioma, a process that currently takes days or weeks, said Kun-Hsing Yu, senior author of a report released July 14 in the journalSurgeons use detailed diagnoses to guide them while they operate, Yu said, and the ability to get them rapidly could improve patients’ outcomes and spare them from multiple surgeries.
Surgeons use information about the genetic profile of a glioma tumour when deciding how much tissue to remove from a patient’s brain, as well as whether to implant wafers coated in a cancer-fighting drug. Getting that information, however, currently requires time-consuming testing. A swift analysis could let doctors proceed with the right treatment without the added time of scheduling and performing another surgery, Yu said.
CHARM can also tell malignant tumour cells apart from benign cells and identify a tumour’s grade, a measure of how aggressive it is. Those are calls that human pathologists can make during surgery, but the tool could remove the need for a 10-to-15-minute wait, Yu said, or for a pathologist to be on standby during an operation.