MIT researchers have made a small device called LUCID. They hope it could help people with glioblastoma, a fast-growing brain cancer. Doctors usually remove this cancer through surgery. But some cancer cells can stay in the brain, and the cancer often comes back.
LUCID is thin and can bend. Doctors could put it inside the head during surgery. It holds liquid medicine and slowly releases it. It also has 24 tiny parts that make ultrasound, a type of sound wave. These waves help medicine move farther through the brain.
Doctors can control the sound waves through Bluetooth, without wires. The device also has a small battery. People can charge it without wires, too. The researchers hope the medicine could reach and kill cancer cells left after surgery.
The team tested the device in a gel that acts like human body tissue. They also tested it in mice, using a liquid that helps doctors see inside the body during a brain scan. In both tests, the sound waves helped the substances spread farther. The researchers described their work in the journal Device.
