(Phys.org)—A diagnosis of pancreatic cancer often means the patient has less than a year to live, and some reports suggest that pancreatic cancer will become the second-leading cause of cancer-related death in the next fifteen years. Patients often require surgery to remove the cancerous tissue as chemotherapy or radiation do not significantly improve patient prognosis. However, current methods to detect whether all of the cancerous tissue has been removed are either too slow to use during surgery or are inaccurate, risking incomplete removal of cancerous tissue.