Surgeons often describe the tricky operation to remove a brain tumour as ‘ trying to pluck a spider out of jelly ’ . Take out too little and the cancerous ‘ legs ’ remain and regrow – but take out too much and there is a risk of cutting away healthy tissue and leaving the patient disabled . Now a British hospital is trialling a laser that bleeps like a parking sensor on a car when the scalpel gets to the edge of the cancerous areas , letting surgeons know their margins for error . In a world first , neurosurgeons at London ’ s Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust have started using the pen-like probe , called the Core , which shines a near-infrared light on to a tumour and scans for subtle differences between healthy and cancerous tissue . The device can read the differences in less than a second , and gives a warning sound if the surgeon is close to healthy tissue . About 16,000 Britons are diagnosed with a brain tumour every year , and more children and adults under 40 die from the condition than from any other cancer . There are more than 120 types . Surgeons hope the Core , which has already proved successful in skin-cancer surgery in Canada , will allow them to remove as much of the cancerous growth as possible and also speed up operating times . The probe was used for the first time during brain surgery at Imperial last week as part of a trial that will involve 30 patients over the next year . Senior neurosurgical trainee Babar Vaqas , who spearheaded the project to bring the Core to the UK , says : ‘ There really is nothing like this at the moment . ‘ Brain surgery is a very complex operation – sometimes even taking just a millimetre too much can cause real damage , such as paralysis or problems with speech . Having something that will make surgery safer and more accurate could be a real game-changer. ’ One of the major obstacles at present is that the boundary between the tumour and healthy brain tissue is very hard to distinguish , even with an operating microscope . Currently , surgeons must rely on taking several tiny cuttings of tissue to ensure they are only taking away that which is cancerous . It can take up to 90 minutes for these biopsies to be tested and for results to be fed back to surgeons , all while the patient remains in the operating theatre . Surgeons believe the pen-like probe could shave up to 30 minutes off the average three-hour surgery time ( picture posed by models ) Instead of taking a physical sample , a surgeon holds the Core over the area being operated on and a beam is emitted from the tip of the probe , scanning for changes in the chemical composition of brain tissue . A tumour molecule vibrates differently from healthy molecules under laser light , causing the light to bounce back in a different way . This is picked up by the probe , and the signal is then interpreted by a computer , giving an instant reading of whether the tissue is cancerous . Mr Vaqas believes using the Core could shave up to 30 minutes off the average three-hour surgery time . ‘ Having a device that takes less than a second to tell the difference between healthy and cancerous tissue means we could potentially avoid taking unnecessary biopsies , and also perform more surgeries in a day , ’ he says . The Core ’ s makers , Canadian company Verisante Technology , hopes the work at Imperial will replicate the success of a similar trial used to detect skin cancer on 1,000 patients at a hospital in Vancouver . The Imperial trial is being part-funded by charity Brain Tumour Research Campaign , which claims research into diagnostics and treatment is ‘ woefully underfunded ’ . Founder Wendy Fulcher says : ‘ Taking away healthy tissue can have disastrous consequences , so this probe is hugely exciting . ’
British surgeons use probe - like probe to spot brain tumours for the first time . Laser helps medics detect differences between healthy and cancerous patients . this technique could take 30 minutes off three - hour operations .