ODS Medical (Montreal, QC, Canada) has received Investigational Testing Authorization from Health Canada (Ottawa, ON, Canada) for its Sentry system prototype, a handheld instrument that performs real-time Raman spectroscopy measurements of normal brain tissue, cancerous tissue, and in areas around the tumor where cancer cells have invaded into normal brain tissue. These nondestructive optical measurements are almost instantaneous and provide a molecular signature of these tissue types, which can be used to train machine learning algorithms to provide critical information live during surgery.
With this authorization, the company will be able to launch a new clinical study in brain cancer surgeries at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (The Neuro). The study is scheduled to start later this month. Kevin Petrecca, Chief of Neurosurgery at the McGill University Health Centre (also in Montreal) and ODS Medical cofounder, is the study's principal investigator.
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Primary brain cancers, particularly high-grade gliomas, are the most common and aggressive brain cancer types, with mean survival times of just over a year. While successful surgery is an important front-line therapy, recurrences are common due to the difficulty in identifying and safely removing areas of brain tissue invaded by cancer cells.
"Sentry real-time Raman spectroscopy offers new hope to patients, by giving surgeons a transformative technology that can differentiate healthy tissue from invaded tissue with the speed and spatial precision required for these delicate procedures," says Christopher Kent, president and CEO of ODS Medical.
For more information, please visit odsmed.com.