NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Last month, Vanderbilt University Medical Center identified a life-saving way to improve medical procedures in real time.

In a brand-new clinical trial, the Head and Neck surgery team at VUMC is using an intraoperative PET-CT scanner inside the operating room.

Inside an oral cancer surgery, Dr. Michael Topf explained that the use of the scanner — which shows the cancer in its entirety — is making history. His team is the first to introduce it into the OR in the United States.

"This technology...it will potentially allow us to know we removed all of the cancer in real time during the surgical operation in a matter of 8-10 minutes," he explained.

Before this trial — which is still very much in its early stages — scans would be sent to pathology after surgery,

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