News

NanoKnife Destroys Prostate Cancer In Under An Hour

Surgeons praise the game-changing therapy as a breakthrough in tumor removal procedures.

Published

3 years ago

November 22, 2023

Nour Nasir

NanoKnife

A groundbreaking “NanoKnife” operation has been developed to help fight prostate cancer. Developed by AngioDynamics, the procedure uses electrical pulses guided by MRI scanning to eradicate hard-to-reach tumors, delicately opening cell membranes and reducing the risk of damage to surrounding tissues.

Traditional treatments for prostate cancer involve radiotherapy or removal surgery, often resulting in complications. The NanoKnife therapy offers greater efficiency and could soon be used as an alternative treatment option by the UK’s NHS.

The NanoKnife trials saw six successful operations performed by surgeons from University College London Hospital (UCLH), who praised the treatment’s simplicity and speed. It is now thought that in the future, overnight hospital stays could be eliminated, reducing strain on healthcare systems.

UCLH consultant urologist Mark Emberton said: “We are delighted to have been the first hospital in the NHS to use irreversible electroporation for patients with prostate cancer. And at times like this, when the NHS is under great pressure, day surgery avoids the need for overnight stays in hospital and means that we can use our operating theaters more efficiently”.

Meanwhile, Neil Gershon, one of the recipients of NanoKnife therapy, added, “It was completed in a day, which was fantastic. After the effects of the general anesthesia subsided, I felt perfectly fine, with no discomfort. It couldn’t have gone any smoother”.

Also Read: Google Is Developing An AI Cancer-Spotting Microscope

According to experts, early studies indicate that NanoKnife and similar focal therapies could revolutionize prostate cancer treatment by attacking tumors with unparalleled accuracy. However, the road to widespread adoption depends on the success of more extensive clinical trials.

For the 50,000+ men diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, this new procedure offers a beacon of hope, with swift, effective, and minimally invasive operations redefining the standard of cancer treatment and care.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.