Lightpoint Medical, a medical device company developing miniaturised surgical tools for advanced intra-operative cancer detection, has received CE Mark approval for the first robotic gamma probe to be commercially available to European hospitals.
Sensei has been designed for intra-operative detection of sentinel lymph nodes as well as cancer metastasis through the lymphatic system. The technology promises more precise, targeted cancer surgery and is applicable across a wide range of major cancer types, including lung, colorectal, stomach, gynecological, and prostate cancer.
Dr. David Tuch, CEO of Lightpoint Medical commented: “Securing CE Mark for Sensei is an important milestone in our efforts to transform cancer surgery and underscores our commitment to meet surgeons’ needs for miniaturised cancer detection tools as robotic platform technologies grow to dominate surgical practice."
He explained that the technology offers accurate real-time cancer detection for robot-assisted cancer surgery. Currently, surgeons have no way to precisely detect cancer intra-operatively. As a result, millions of patients suffer every year as cancer is frequently left behind or healthy, functional tissue is needlessly removed.
Robotic surgeon, Dr. Jim Adshead, at the Lister Hospital, East and North Herts NHS Trust, said: “I am very excited about regulatory approval for Sensei and now eager to start using it in surgery. I have been closely involved in the development of the technology since early usability testing and I’m extremely hopeful for its potential in advancing the treatment of prostate cancer”.
Professor Declan Murphy, robotic surgeon at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia added: “Our team is very keen to start using the technology in prostate cancer surgery using the da Vinci robot. As a leader in research in robot-assisted prostate cancer surgery and molecular imaging using PSMA, we are extremely excited about the prospects for Sensei to improve outcomes for our patients."
The technology locates SPECT radioligands such as 99mTc-nanocolloid for sentinel lymph node detection or cancer-targeted drugs for cancer metastasis detection such as 99mTc-PSMA (Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen) in prostate cancer surgery. CE Mark approval of Sensei is for sentinel lymph node detection.
