Imagine being able to remove a lymph gland at the time of surgery and place it in a machine in the corner of the operating room and getting a clear answer in 15 minutes – no cancer cells detected! The technology has been used for so called “sentinel node mapping” in breast cancer but not in the UK and few places in the world for colorectal cancer. OCCTOPUS has helped secure a long term loan of the equipment to do this and is helping funding the tool kit for each test as we explore the potential of OSNA in colorectal cancer. Until now a pathologist can look at a “frozen section” during surgery but this takes around 2 hours all up and is impractical. Further, this “automation” of lymph node assessment may be a step into the future of histopathology reporting.

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