Portable brain tumor treatment system kills cancer while you take out the trash -- Engadget

Portable brain tumor treatment system kills cancer while you take out the trash -- Engadget

We've seen robots that perform brain surgery and lasers that cook tumors, and now a team of researchers are well on their way to bringing mobility to the battle against brain cancer. The NovoTTF-100A, which just received FDA approval, is basically a set of insulated electrodes, attached to an electronic box, that pumps low intensity electrical fields to the site of a freshly diagnosed GBM (glioblastoma multiforme) tumor. The fields, known as Tumor Treatment Fields (TTF), play off the electrically charged elements of cancer cells to stunt the tumor's growth, and may in some cases actually reverse it. A recent test of the system showed comparable results to chemotherapy, without the usual lineup of side effects, including nausea, anemia, fatigue, and infection. Given, patients using the system are expected to wear the thing continuously, but we'd say walking around with a cap full of electrodes is a small price to pay for giving cancer the boot. Full PR after the break.

he NovoTTF-100A System is made by Novocure of Portsmouth, N.H.
Source: Novocure

Real Retinas Grown in Lab Hold Eye Transplant Promise

Lab-grown human organs may seem like futuristic technology, but in a lab in Kobe, Japan, researchers are growing new retinas in a dish.

"This retina tissue made in the test tube was clearly real. It mimicked the complex structure of the retina in the eye," said Yoshiki Sasai at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, lead researcher on the study, published today (April 7) in the journal Nature.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/04/06/real-retinas-grown-lab-hold-eye-transplant-promise/#ixzz1IoY2MupK

Real Retinas Grown in Lab Hold Eye Transplant Promise - FoxNews.com

Prosthetic arm that is controlled by brain signals

General_Public - News & Events - Ryerson University: "Two Ryerson University undergraduate biomedical engineering students are changing the world of medical prosthetics with a newly developed prosthetic arm that is controlled by brain signals."

Since the device does not include microelectronics and motors, it costs one-quarter of other functional prosthetic arms, which can run users more than $80,000, depending on the complexity of the prosthesis. Other prosthetic arms with a similar degree of control require patients to undergo a complex muscle re-innervation surgery – a complicated procedure that costs about $300,000 and is not available in Canada and not covered by the provincial health plan. As the AMO Arm is non-invasive, the period of adjustment for new users is drastically decreased. While traditional prosthetics may require weeks of learning and training, basic function with the AMO Arm can be mastered in mere minutes.

Major advance for bionic eye

UNSW: The University of New South Wales - Sydney Australia - News - Major advance for bionic eye

UNSW researchers have unveiled the microchip which is expected to power Australia’s first bionic eye.


The microchip is performing well in preliminary lab testing. It will be at the core of the Wide-View neurostimulator device being developed by BVA, with the first full implant of the system in a patient planned for 2013.

The bionic eye technology being developed by UNSW and its partners in BVA – the Bionic Ear Institute, Centre for Eye Research Australia, NICTA and University of Melbourne – aims to help people who have experienced vision loss due to retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD).