French doctors use laser to destroy brain tumor in conscious patient

Neurosurgery with robotic assistance is getting pretty old hat nowadays, so it looks like scientists are trying to up the difficulty factor by keeping their patients awake -- a team of French doctors just completed the first successful removal of malignant brain tumor from a still-conscious patient, using a computerized laser and an MRI scanner to guide the probe. The fiber-optic laser was fed into the brain through a 3mm (.12 inch) hole in the patient's skull and guided via MRI to the tumor, where it fired for two minutes and completely destroyed the cancerous tissue. Once the tumor cells were dead, the cable was removed and the patient was allowed to return home -- all within a single day. That's pretty impressive, and it comes on the heels of 15 similar trials where five out six patients who underwent the total removal procedure were cancer-free nine months after surgery. The team says further research will cost an additional two million euros to progress, but if this technique works as well as they claim after peer review, we'd guess that money won't be hard to come by.

[Via Fark]

[Brad @ Aug 30th 2008 3:16PM]

All patients are conscious during brain surgery.. that way they know if something goes wrong..

[Maeztro @ Aug 30th 2008 3:34PM]

Yeah...I'm no brain surgeon (ha ha) but my understanding is that since the actual brain has no pain receptors you are kept sedated but awake. This way the doctors know if you are having a stroke or something while they are doing the procedure. I think that applies for all brain surgeries.

[Flashpoint @ Aug 30th 2008 3:45PM]

A brain tumor called Right Wing conservatism.

[Roxx @ Aug 30th 2008 4:11PM]

Nope, surgery while awake thats only for some special cases, most times they go under with enesthetics and you remove the tumors, the angiotangles or bleedings according to MRI imaging with a 3d probe positional probe to avoid sensitive areas.

[steven @ Aug 30th 2008 5:20PM]

A damaged brain that makes you say stupid things is called "Flashpointism"

[ScooterDe @ Aug 30th 2008 5:31PM]

I've had conventional neurosurgery (for five hours) and was unconscious at the time. Only a few patients are kept awake, in order to assess changes in their speech functions, reasoning ability etc. (how much they are being affected by removal of a tumor).
Anything that advances the relatively crude practice of separating tumors from brain tissue will be highly welcome, since patients rarely come away without long term issues.

[Corey @ Aug 31st 2008 6:25PM]

Not all brain surgery patients are kept conscious, but many are. There is also something called gamma knife surgery where high resolution MRI is used to target lesions in the brain with precise doses of gamma radiation for lesions in which open surgery is not an option. So this isn't really a very amazing development.

[Richard Lai @ Aug 30th 2008 3:22PM]

Anyone know how they seal the hole afterwards?

[imacmatt09 @ Aug 30th 2008 3:29PM]

Duct tape?

[chiraag @ Aug 30th 2008 3:34PM]

hahaha the best idea i have heard in a long time!

[jarofchris @ Aug 30th 2008 3:54PM]

They just drill screws into the piece of skull they removed, then affix it neatly back into the space it was removed from. Then they suture the scalp back over it. I've seen it done; no big deal... :)

[deyanimay @ Aug 30th 2008 4:08PM]

Chewing gum which they then plant chia seeds in to make it look like your hair has grown back.

[ScooterDe @ Aug 30th 2008 5:35PM]

Typical holes are very small and the instruments microscopic in detail. If there is a substantial piece of skull removed it will possibly be slotted back in. Plastic putty seals the gaps.

[stealth658 @ Aug 30th 2008 3:27PM]

that's freakin amazing.

[PynkFloydd @ Aug 31st 2008 6:07AM]

I dunno... That's still not as hardcore as this doctor:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23395547-2,00.html

He used a Bosch battery powered drill to operate. I heard he said, "lasers? we don't need no stinkin' lasers!".

[Chris Anderson @ Aug 30th 2008 3:27PM]

A laser drilling into my brain while i'm awake? Sounds divine....

[andres @ Aug 30th 2008 3:30PM]

I for one do not feel safe with sharks being responsible for getting rid of my cancer

[Pumping_Iron @ Aug 30th 2008 4:31PM]

sharks with a freakinn' laaaser beam
:P

[rita hainsworth @ Aug 30th 2008 3:30PM]

Ipod killer?

[Hexxeh @ Aug 30th 2008 3:36PM]

Yeah. PMPs are old hat now, Apple now offer brain surgery for that extra-close Apple fix permanently.

[avester @ Aug 30th 2008 3:36PM]

Well, being an Apple fanboy and lobotomy are close enough, so why not.

[Mr. Fax Sender @ Aug 30th 2008 3:33PM]

I'm sorry, but every time I see the word "laser" I think of "PEW PEW PEW".

This whole story has not been taken seriously because of it.

[cesium @ Aug 30th 2008 3:45PM]

And no one cares :p

[Scott @ Aug 30th 2008 3:37PM]

"it comes on the heels of 15 similar trials where five out six patients who underwent the total removal procedure were cancer-free nine months after surgery"

And the other 9 patients' brains were turned into scrambled eggs.

[stealth658 @ Aug 30th 2008 3:42PM]

win-win?

[flfny @ Aug 30th 2008 4:24PM]

"5/6" is a ratio of success, or about 83%. That means out of 15 there was ~12 who were cancer free. I'm guessing you didn't pass statistics did you?

[stealth658 @ Aug 30th 2008 5:32PM]

Actually, I don't think it's a ratio of success because I'm guessing they would have used a ratio that 15 can divide into. The key words, in my opinion, are "who underwent the total removal procedure," leading me to believe that of the 15, 6 underwent the total removal procedure, and the rest did not.

[Roxx @ Aug 30th 2008 4:08PM]

Nope, surgery while awake thats only for some special cases, most times they go under with enesthetics and you remove the tumors, the angiotangles or bleedings according to MRI imaging with a 3d probe positional probe to avoid sensitive areas.

[Chuckles McGee @ Aug 30th 2008 4:07PM]

"INSERT TWO MILLION EUROS TO CONTINUE"

[Podaman @ Aug 30th 2008 5:07PM]

"WINNERS DON'T HAVE TUMORS"

[Patrick @ Aug 31st 2008 11:46AM]

Not that impressive if the tumors were metastasis. We do that every day in radiosurgery with similar results. Don't even need to make an incision. If the tumors are glioblastomas then it's very impressive, but I doubt it's the case. It's almost impossible to remove them completely with regular surgery so I doubt lasers would be any more helpful. Perhaps this is useful as a lower cost solution to radiosurgery.

Chris A, I'm a huge Porcupine Tree fan. Love your avatar.

[ScooterDe @ Aug 30th 2008 5:37PM]

and less likely to allow for relapse, or to simply gum up the works by radiating the tumor in situ.

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Aug 30th 2008 5:02PM]

This could make hannibal lector very happy because it makes lunch times faster.

[Loonie @ Aug 30th 2008 5:05PM]

?

[turtlesoup @ Aug 30th 2008 5:45PM]

Epic fail!

Most brain surgery operations are done while the patients are awake and have been for decades.

[Maxwell @ Aug 30th 2008 8:24PM]

Since when have new advances in science that could save people's lives been an "epic fail"?

[targe @ Aug 30th 2008 6:19PM]

"French", "brain" and "conscious" in the same headline....

Very ambitious, endgadget, I'll give you that much!

[Mel @ Aug 31st 2008 2:06AM]

Your comment was ambitious, I'll give you that much! On second thought, no I won't.

[diotima @ Aug 31st 2008 6:11AM]

Fun thing is that your whole anti french hysteria came up when you were pissed that they, with most of the rest of the world by the way, thought your rushing into the Irak war was probably not the best idea to fight terrorism.

Now, a few years later, popular opinion even in your country has changed, but for the rest of the world, we still remember those war mongers getting 80% consent and can't help but feel that there seems only a 20% probability of a match between "us, brain and conscious".

Some just flip flop and feel sorry, but then there are some who until today don't see, that their anti french jokes just reflect their own error in judgement. That's just sad.

[targe @ Aug 31st 2008 9:07AM]

To be honest, I'm not anti-French at all. I've spent a lot of time over there and have found everyone (well, everyone south of Paris) to be very nice. They have even never seemed to mind my grammatically disastrous use of their language!

But...ya gotta make fun of someone, now and again, huh?.....unless you're one of those bleeding-heart liberals, of course.

[King Mook Mook @ Aug 30th 2008 6:46PM]

What happens to the other two patients who were not successful????

[lorddshadow @ Aug 30th 2008 7:44PM]

let's just say the word fried comes to mind.

[Faye @ Aug 30th 2008 8:20PM]

A close family member died of a brain tumor. A friend's husband is no longer to work though still alive after having brain tumors removed. I think this is very important research.

[andres @ Aug 30th 2008 8:37PM]

no longer able to work?
I'm assuming that's the missing word.

[dramamoose @ Aug 30th 2008 11:20PM]

!

[Mr stol @ Aug 30th 2008 11:37PM]

Prof. Vogel from Frankfurt, Germany, does similar work with lasers and MRI on liver tumors. It appears to be much more accurate and effective then radiotherapy.

[Greg @ Aug 31st 2008 12:23AM]

pew pew pew

[pfromg @ Aug 31st 2008 4:12AM]

im reading
"French doctors use laser to destroy brain in conscious patient"

once the brain is destroyed they can cross off conscious, and pass patient on to the next department.
I suppose this is a great way of reducing treatment costs..

[sinergy @ Aug 31st 2008 10:36AM]

Awesome. My father in law recently died of a brain tumor. Too bad he couldn't have had this done. Maybe he'd be alive today :(

[Shane @ Aug 31st 2008 1:39PM]

wow, this is great news!