VIBRATIONAL OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY (VOCT)

About: 

• Background: Currently, physicians who perform surgical biopsies often do not know the extent of a lesion — and whether it will be necessary to refer the patient to a specialist for extensive tissue removal or plastic surgery — until surgery has already begun.
  
  
• Recent development: Now scientists have developed a ‘virtual biopsy’ device that can quickly and non-invasively determine whether a skin tumour is cancerous and needs to be removed surgically.
  
  
• Working:
  • The first-of-its-kind experimental procedure, called vibrational optical coherence tomography (VOCT), creates a 3D map of the legion’s width and depth under the skin with a tiny laser diode, without using a scalpel.
    
    
  • The procedure also makes use of soundwaves to test the lesion’s density and stiffness since cancer cells are stiffer than healthy cells.
    
    
  
  
  
• Benefits: The ability to analyse a skin tumour non-invasively could make biopsies much less risky and distressing to patients.