Cruz, Rosalia C.

Handheld MasSpec Pen for Molecular Cancer Detection

During Surgeries

Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin have developed a new handheld pen for rapid
intraoperative cancer detection. Their work demonstrates that the tool can identify different
molecular profiles between cancerous and non-cancerous tissue without harming the sampled
tissues. This exciting development can one day improve cancer diagnosis and allow for more
precise surgical removal of tumors.

Currently, surgeons rely on tissue sectioning and histology to determine whether or not the tumor
has been fully excised. This process, which takes at least 30 minutes and requires trained
operators, is time- and resource-intensive. Other methods for tissue sampling have been
developed, yet they require physically cutting the tissue, which can be undesirable in the case of
brain cancer, for example.

The new system is dubbed the “MasSpec Pen.” It is a disposable, handheld tool that delivers a
single water droplet to the tissue surface, which samples the biomolecules. The droplet is then
gently sucked up by the pen and sent into a mass spectrometer, which develops a molecular
profile based on proteins, lipids, and metabolites in the sample.

The UT Austin team demonstrated that the tool could identify different molecular profiles
between cancer and noncancerous tissue. Using statistical methods to classify human samples,
they showed an accuracy of 96.3% of identifying whether a tissue was cancerous or not. They
also used the MasSpec Pen on a mouse that had cancer and were able to identify its unique
molecular spectra, demonstrating that the pen did not cause observable tissue damage or harm
the animal. The device is currently in clinical testing at the Texas Medical Center for thyroid,
breast, and pancreatic cancer surgeries.
Cruz, Rosalia C.