New high-tech glasses for surgeons allow doctors to "see" cancer cells in the operating room, helping them distinguish tumors from healthy tissues.

When viewed through the special glasses, designed by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, cancer cells appear to glow blue under a special light, thanks to a fluorescent marker injected in the tumor that attaches only to cancerous and not to healthy cells.

According to Medical News Today, more concentrated cancer cells appear lighter shades of blue.

Julie Margenthaler, M.D., a breast surgeon and associate professor of surgery at Washington University who conducted the first operation using the wearable technology, noted the glasses are still in early stages of development. But the initial tests have been promising.

"Imagine what it would mean if these glasses eliminated the need for follow-up surgery and the associated pain, inconvenience and anxiety," she said.

Cancer cells are often difficult to distinguish from healthy tissues and surgeons are not always able to remove all of the tumor tissue and avoid leaving behind stray cancer cells.

But the new glasses hold out the hope that surgeons will soon be able to remove all cancer cells from patients, reducing the need for follow-up surgery.