Magnetic ‘metal seed’ that destroys brain tumours in ten minutes invented by British scientists
Deadly brain tumours could be removed in just ten minutes with a groundbreaking new treatment which uses MRI scanners to heat up cancer cells until they die.
The new therapy, developed by University College London, involves injecting a tiny magnetic metal ‘seed’ into the bloodstream and directing it to the site of the cancer.
The scanner is then used to heat up the metal seed which causes the cells to die in the surrounding tissue. Not only does it quickly kill cancer cells, but it saves healthy cells from the damaging effects of invasive surgery or radiotherapy.
The team at UCL has already proven it is effective in the brains of pigs and plans to move to human trials on patients with prostate cancer within the next two years with the hope it will be available for many cancers on the NHS within five years.
Launching the new technology at The Cheltenham Science Festival, Mark Lythgoe, professor of imaging at UCL, said: “The aim is to turn every MRI scanner in the world into a therapeutic device. At the moment it just take pictures.
“The simple idea is the patient goes into the MRI scanner, you locate a tumour in the brain or the prostate and then we implant a tiny magnetic particle, a little bit smaller than a grain of rice, to the site of the tumour.
“We can guide it with real precision avoiding any areas that we don’t want to go to, like the sensory motor-cortex in the brain, the area with memories.
“Once it’s in there we’re able to fire in a simple radio wave and these seeds heat up remarkably well, and kills all the cells around it. You then just guide the seed through the tumour, killing all the cells. And you can do it with real precision right up to the margins of the tumour so there is no tumour left. This is life-changing.”
