One year after “cancer goggles” were first used in a successful breast cancer operation, Dr. Samuel Achilefu is still getting emails from surgeons all over the world, hoping for a chance to use them.
“We’ve been inundated,” he said from his desk in Washington University’s Mallinckrodt Institute, hours before receiving the 2014 St. Louis Award for his invention.
Achilefu counts 27 surgeries where his technology has been worn by doctors operating on patients with breast cancer, liver cancer and melanoma. An injected dye reacts with infrared light to make cancerous tissue light up, helping surgeons locate the tumor and separate it from healthy tissue.
He said he hopes the device becomes a cheaper, easier way for doctors to “see” tumors here and in the developing world. Because the goggles also project the surgeon’s view onto a computer screen, they could be adapted for use as a teaching tool.
Achilefu said the idea for the goggles was borrowed from other medical disciplines and born out of a need to reduce the number of instruments in a surgery room.
“Ophthalmologists use glasses. Neurosurgeons do the same thing, but with large microscopes,” Achilefu said. “The idea was what is the simplest device to create that is easy to use but still effective.”
Developing the goggles became a three year collaboration between radiologists, optical and sensory engineers, and surgeons — a tting development for the same radiology institute that invented the PET scan.
The St. Louis Award is given each year to honor a resident who has made an “outstanding contribution” to the community. Achilefu accepted his during a ceremony Wednesday evening in St. Louis.
Speaking by phone with St. Louis Public Radio, award committee president David Kemper said, “It just seemed natural,” to choose Achilefu for the honor.
“None of us knew him, but we knew of what was going on. We thought, ‘Well, isn’t this fascinating, what a great contribution to society,’” Kemper said.
Achilefu grew up in the city of Aba, in southeastern Nigeria. After winning a government scholarship to study in France, he completed his studies at Oxford University before following a longtime mentor to the Mallinckrodt lab in 1993. He lives in the St. Louis area with his wife and two teenage children.
“I’m a good example that if you place anybody in a place and ask them to survive, they will. They will adapt to that language,” Achilefu joked. He speaks three languages uently: Igbo, English and French.
As for the future of the goggles, Achilefu said he’d like to see them become easily accessible to low-resource areas, such as urban centers and rural hospitals. He and his colleagues are gathering data to apply for FDA approval.
“I hope that in other developing parts of the world that can’t afford imaging technologies, this becomes affordable and useful for them,” he said.
Another step will be adapting the goggles to magnify the surgeon’s view to streamline brain surgeries. Achilefu said that ideally, the image would be sharp enough to be magnified so that even a single cell could be identified by a neurosurgeon.
“Medicine becomes more objective if you can see what you are treating.” Achilefu said. “You have the confidence you are doing the right thing to the patient.”
Other patents (inventions) owned by the same Samuel Achilefu (St. Louis, MO)
1 8,658,433 Dye compounds as photoactive agents
2 8,344,158 Fluorescent polymethine cyanine dyes
3 8,318,133 Macrocyclic cyanine and indocyanine bioconjugates provide improved biomedical applications
4 8,053,415 Compounds having RD targeting motifs
5 7,850,946 Macrocyclic cyanine and indocyanine bioconjugates provide improved biomedical applications
6 7,790,144 Receptor-avid exogenous optical contrast and therapeutic agents
7 7,767,194 Optical diagnostic and therapeutic agents and compositions
8 7,758,861 Dye-sulfenates for dual phototherapy
9 7,608,244 Hydrophilic light absorbing compositions for determination of physiological function in critically ill patients
10 7,566,444 Versatile hydrophilic dyes
11 7,556,797 Minimally invasive physiological function monitoring agents
12 7,514,069 Tumor-targeted optical contrast agents
13 7,510,700 Pathological tissue detection and treatment employing targeted benzoindole optical agents
14 7,504,087 Receptor-avid exogenous optical contrast and therapeutic agents
15 7,468,177 Hydrophilic light absorbing compositions for determination of physiological function in critically ill patients
16 7,438,894 Dyes for organ function monitoring
17 7,431,925 Internal image antibodies for optical imaging and therapy
18 7,427,657 Aromatic sulfenates for type 1 phototherapy
19 7,351,807 Cyanine-sulfenates for dual phototherapy
20 7,303,926 Methods and compositions for dual phototherapy
21 7,297,325 Hydrophilic light absorbing compositions for determination of physiological function
22 7,252,815 Pathological tissue detection and treatment employing targeted benzoindole optical agents
23 7,235,685 Aromatic sulfenates for type I phototherapy
24 7,230,088 Compounds for dual photodiagnosis and therapy
25 7,201,892 Pathological tissue detection and treatment employing targeted optical agents
26 7,198,778 Tumor-targeted optical contrast agents
27 7,175,831 Light sensitive compounds for instant determination of organ function
28 7,128,896 Pathological tissue detection and treatment employing targeted benzoindole optical agents
29 7,011,817 Hydrophilic cyanine dyes
30 6,939,532 Versatile hydrophilic dyes
31 6,887,854 Compounds as dynamic organ function monitoring agents
32 6,761,878 Pathological tissue detection and treatment employing targeted benzoindole optical agents
33 6,747,151 Azo compounds for type I phototherapy
34 6,733,744 Indole compounds as minimally invasive physiological function monitoring agents
35 6,716,413 Indole compounds as tissue-specific exogenous optical agents
36 6,706,254 Receptor-avid exogenous optical contrast and therapeutic agents
37 6,673,334 Light sensitive compounds for instant determination of organ function
38 6,669,926 Hydrophilic light absorbing indole compounds for determination of physiological function in critically ill patients
39 6,663,847 Dynamic organ function monitoring agents
40 6,656,451 Indole compounds as novel dyes for organ function monitoring
41 6,641,798 Tumor-targeted optical contrast agents
42 6,485,704 Azo compound for type I pototherapy
43 6,423,547 Non-covalent bioconjugates useful for diagnosis and therapy
44 6,395,257 Dendrimer precursor dyes for imaging
45 6,280,703 Simultaneous multimodal measurement of physiological function
46 6,277,841 Quinoline ligands and metal complexes for diagnosis and therapy
47 6,264,920 Tunable indocyanine dyes for biomedical applications
48 6,264,919 Indocyanine dyes
49 6,228,344 Method of measuring physiological function
50 6,217,848 Cyanine and indocyanine dye bioconjugates for biomedical applications
51 6,190,641 Indocyanine dyes
52 6,183,726 Versatile hydrophilic dyes
53 6,180,087 Tunable indocyanine dyes for biomedical applications
54 6,180,086 Hydrophilic cyanine dyes
55 6,180,085 Dyes
56 6,013,243 Gaseous inhalable ultrasound contrast agents and method therefore
49 6,228,344 Method of measuring physiological function
50 6,217,848 Cyanine and indocyanine dye bioconjugates for biomedical applications
51 6,190,641 Indocyanine dyes
52 6,183,726 Versatile hydrophilic dyes
53 6,180,087 Tunable indocyanine dyes for biomedical applications
54 6,180,086 Hydrophilic cyanine dyes
55 6,180,085 Dyes
56 6,013,243 Gaseous inhalable ultrasound contrast agents and method therefore
