Scientists from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota have created an expandable polymer that is strong enough to replace bone tissue. Motherboard reports: Lichun Lu and Xifeng Lu, scientists at the Mayo Clinic’s college of medicine, have developed special biodegradable polymer bone grafts that will grow to a specific size and shape once surgically placed in the body. The research was presented today at the American Chemical Society’s spring meeting in San Diego. “We are working on a solution to improve surgical cancer treatments,” Lu said Tuesday. “Removing spinal tumors sometimes requires removing surrounding bone/discs. We’ve created a spongy cage to fill the void in the spine.” American Chemical Society YouTube video: Cancer spreads through the body via a process called metastasis. When cancer spreads to the bones, the spine is the most common skeletal location for it to appear. When doctors remove spinal tumors, they have to remove significant amounts of bone and even entire intervertebral discs, leaving a significant gap. To ensure the integrity of the spinal cord and maintain the strength of the patient’s spine, doctors have to fill the gaps; however, current methods for doing so are not ideal. Patients typically have to choose between an aggressive, [...]