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Augmented reality; coming soon to a theatre near you

“In ten years’ time we will wonder how we were able to operate without 3D imaging and augmented reality,” said Patrick Pessaux, a surgeon at the university teaching hospital of Strasbourg.

For the surgeon, the advantage of these emerging techniques is two-fold.  Firstly, the day before the operation doctors will be able to explain the details of the intervention to the patient using a tablet computer.  “This educational and entertaining approach tends to reassure them” the specialist stated.

Secondly, 3D visualization of an anomaly beforehand allows the surgeon to define his movements and aim directly thus lowering the risk of side effects.  “When we aim for the gallbladder, in 0.5% of cases the bile duct, which leads from the liver to the intestine, is impacted, causing injury.  Augmented reality allows us to visualize this duct which is hidden beneath fat, and thereby avoid it.”

A clinical trial on gall bladder removals (100 000 operations each year in France) in 60 patients has just concluded in Strasbourg.  The data are being analyzed.  “It is a world first.  We are going to identify in how many of the sixty patients augmented reality enabled us to find the right structure”, Patrick Pessoux explained.

Even if augmented reality provides more accurate diagnosis, helps to prepare operations, and informs patients, it hasn’t yet arrived in operating theaters.  At present, navigation allows surgical guidance during an operation. We will still have to wait for a few years for these innovations, which are currently in research and development, to finally enter the operating room.

Is 100 days without meat good for our health?

Aline Perraudin, editor of “Santé Magazine” and author of “100 days without meat” set herself the challenge of eating no meat for 100 days.  Even though the journalist made the choice for ethical reasons, because she could no longer stand the scandals over animal slaughter for example, is it possible that this decision was good for her health?

“Many studies have compared the health of vegetarians and meat-eaters,” GP Dr Martine Perez told Europe 1.  “The results show that vegetarians generally have fewer cancers.”  But these conclusions should be taken with precaution.   First and foremost, because certain types of cancer, such as colon cancer are just as common in non meat-eaters as in others.  Finally, the decrease in risk of cancer is not necessarily linked to dietary habits.  “If vegetarians have fewer cancers, it is because over all they are health conscious,” Dr Perez stated.  So, they have fewer lung cancers because they are less likely to smoke than the rest of the population.

Other studies have been carried out on cardiovascular diseases.  Here again it is difficult to associate lower prevalence in vegetarians with diet.  Dr Perez added that “vegetarians are also a little less frequently diabetic and less obese.”  But an Austrian study has upset the cart, coming to the conclusion that vegetarians had more allergies than meat-eaters, and were more depressed.  Aline Perraudin, for her part, believes that going meat-free has enabled her to eat a more balanced diet.  “Initially, you feel like there are only side dishes left”, she told Europe 1.  “At the end, I felt as though I was doing myself good.  Eating a vegetable-based diet eased my conscience.” The journalist ate a more balanced diet, “tofu doesn’t need chips”.   Indeed, besides meat, what people eat with it disrupts a balanced diet, and thus their health.  “People who eat meat, eat more chips, and more fat, and drink more wine” concluded Dr Perez.

The question remains as to what (nutritional) deficiencies a vegetarian diet can cause.  For nutritionist Jean-Michel Cohen it is nevertheless possible to compensate for the proteins, iron and vitamin B12 contained in meat.  “We can get iron from chocolate, wholemeal bread or wheat bran.”  Vitamin B12 on the other hand is difficult to find in other foods besides fish.  If fish is also being avoided, taking dietary supplements is advised.

A Blood Test to Detect Cancer

It is a revolutionary discovery.  French oncologist Patrizia Paterlini-Bréchot at the Necker Children’s University Teaching Hospital has developed a blood test which detects all cancers at an early stage.

French health minister Marisol Touraine regards this new test as the ‘promise of a major shift in cancer treatment because it is particularly simple to use, and therefore easy to implement on a larger scale’.

This technical feat, achieved by Patrizia Paterlini-Bréchot, a professor of cellular biology and oncologie at the Necker Children’s University Teaching Hospital (University of Paris-Descartes) consists in detecting the cancerous invasion at the very beginning of the disease. ‘Thanks to tests on animals, we knew that these (cancerous) cells are present in the blood for years before the appearance of metastases, and patients die because of these metastases, not because of the initial tumor.  Just as the AIDS virus does, these cells mutate, and because of this have time to become more and more resistant,’ said the researcher.

After seven years of research, a large box has been produced in which the tests called ISET (Isolation by Size of Tumor cells) can be carried out.  This test can detect the presence of these tumor cells which are larger than blood cells among the 5 billion red blood cells and 100 billion white blood cells in 10ml of blood.

The efficiency of the test has been proven by the results obtained at the university teaching hospital in Nice, where a cohort of at-risk patients (heavy smokers with pulmonary disease) was followed for 6 years.  Thanks to the test, researchers detected tumor cells in the blood of five patients well before the lung cancer was visible on an x-ray.  The patients underwent an operation, and were cured of this most lethal of cancers.

When the tumor cells are identified in the blood, specific medical imaging examinations are required to screen for the tumor, she explained. Based on your predispositions and your medical history, we begin for example with the breast in a woman and the prostate in a man, and scan the whole body if we do not find it.  In the future it should be possible to identify the organ from which the tumor cells come and thereby save time.  Proteins found in the cancer cells will indicate in which organ they originated.

It will also be possible to use this test for patients who are in remission in order to verify that the cancer has not returned, and allow oncologists to change and adapt treatments for diagnosed patients.  The test has recently come onto the market, costs 486€ and is not reimbursed by social security.  Even if it is not useful for everyone, and not widely available, it seems that this major discovery, if developed on a larger scale, will increase life expectancy in mankind.  Worldwide, 15 million cases of cancer occur every year.