A team led by a Maltese surgeon is developing a new technique in Scotland which could revolutionise cancer surgery.

The novel procedure makes tumours ferromagnetic, allowing them to be removed with magnetic instruments without being touched, thereby reducing the chances that cancer cells are shed when the growth is removed.

The team is being led by Malta-born surgeon Alfred Cuschieri, the knighted professor who holds much of the credit for the development of keyhole surgery.

Speaking to The Times from his office in Scotland, Sir Alfred explained that when tumours were forcibly removed – the norm at the moment – they ran the risk of shedding cancer cells due to trauma in the process. Shed cancer cells could spread to other parts of the body, causing it to metastasise elsewhere.

But if a tumour became responsive to magnets, it could be removed with a special instrument without having to be touched, drastically reducing – if not totally eliminating – the risk of shedding cells.

“These new instruments will just hold the tumour at its tip without actually touching it,” he said. The tumour could then be dissected using special instruments with the aim of removing it through a keyhole incision.

Tissue can be made ferromagnetic either by injected the growth with a ferro-fluid solution or by having ferromagnetic plastic films stick to it.

Sir Alfred, the director of the Dundee-based Institute of Medical Science and Technology, said he was “fairly confident” about the procedure’s success, although there was still a long way to go before the technology was fully developed.

Full story in The Times.