Science and technology | Neurosurgery

A new technique could analyse tumours mid-surgery

It would be fast enough to guide the hands of neurosurgeons

Patient undergoes brain surgery.
A cut abovePhotograph: Bèatrice De Gèa/The New York Times/Redux/Eyevine
|Nottingham

LÉO WURPILLOT was ten years old when he learned he had a brain tumour. To determine its malignancy, sections of the tumour had to be surgically removed and analysed. Now 19, he recalls the anguish that came with the subsequent three-month wait for a diagnosis. The news was good, and today Mr Wurpillot is a thriving first-year biomedical student at Cardiff University. But the months-long post-operative anticipation remains hard for patients to bear. That wait may one day be a thing of the past.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “The brains of the operation”

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