Low-Cost 3D-Printed Device Opens New Avenues for Glioblastoma Research

Additive manufacturing continues to establish itself as a transformative tool in medical practice. Its ability to produce customized, reproducible, and low-cost devices has allowed fields such as neurosurgery to advance toward solutions that were previously unimaginable. One of the most recent examples comes from a team at Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) and Queen’s University in Canada. There, clinical researchers have developed and patented a 3D-printed surgical capsule for biopsies that promises to change the way glioblastoma, a highly aggressive brain cancer with no cure, is studied.

Glioblastoma is particularly difficult to study because it is not uniform. Cells vary greatly from one area to another, and a single sample rarely represents what is happening in the entire diseased tissue. Traditional biopsies, taken from isolated points, reveal only a small part of the problem. The new 3D-printed capsule addresses this by allowing multiple samples to be collected during surgery and directly correlated with MRI images. This gives researchers a more complete and organized view of how the tumor behaves as a whole.

Thanks to the capsule, it is possible to gain a more detailed understanding of the internal architecture of glioblastoma. This enables the development of more selective surgical strategies as well as improved planning for targeted radiotherapy. Currently, KHSC is the only center in the world using this tool in actual surgeries, although adoption could expand rapidly due to its low cost and ease of 3D printing. The team is already working on creating a collaborative network with hospitals across Ontario and is establishing a biobank to collect patient samples. This could provide an unprecedented database on glioblastoma biology and enhance the identification of patterns.