Image source: Tarl Prow
Traditional biopsies can take on a number of forms: Doctors might excise a large skin sample using a scalpel, punch a hole in the skin to remove a circle of flesh, or even shave a layer of skin off. Whichever process they use, patients will typically end up with a wound that's a few millimeters wide and can be as deep as 5mm. Since such biopsies typically leave scars and might even require stitches, such procedures are far from ideal, especially for sensitive places like the face.
That's why Tarl Prow, a research professor at the University of South Australia's Future Industries Institute, decided to invent a device that takes skin samples in a far less invasive way. The needle used in the microbiopsies is merely 0.5mm wide, and it only requires a piece of skin that's 0.4mm deep and 0.15mm wide to be excised. Just for the sake of comparison, the finger prick needles that diabetics use can go up to 4mm deep.
Image source: Tarl Prow
In the tests Prow's team have carried out so far, they've found that the small puncture marks usually heal within 7 days, leaving no scar tissue at all. The procedure also causes the patient very little pain, which means that it is even suitable for children, and anesthesia may not even need to be used. It is also a lot faster than a regular biopsy, meaning that more tests can be run and a patient's health can be better monitored over time.
"Many of us, when we reach a certain age, have a lot of these pink spots on sun-exposed areas, and you just can't go in and biopsy all of those with conventional techniques," Prow said. "So the idea with the microbiopsy is we can go in on the face, on the head, where you don't want to have a surgical procedure, take a small sample and see whether or not it's malignant."
Image source: Tarl Prow
Image source: University of South Australia
The microbiopsy devices will be manufactured by Trajan Scientific and Medical, and Prow's team is already making preparations for a huge clinical trial to begin by the end of 2019. They hope to have an approved diagnostic test available by 2023.
Prow said that "the challenge is really to scale up the manufacture, and develop the kind of pathology kits that we need to support different diseases, starting with skin cancer."
