The system is known as the Flare, and it involves injecting a special chemical into a target – such as a cancerous tumor – and then using near-infrared light to highlight the target on a monitor.

By visually separating the bad from the good, it is designed to help surgeons remove all of the diseased tissue while leaving behind the healthy tissue.

The system has been described as “cutting by color,” but Frangioni prefers the phrase “seeing is curing” because he thinks cutting is just the start.

“If we can drag a light bulb to the cancer, why not drag a bomb that can kill it?” he said. “But that’s in the future. This decade is the seeing decade. The next decade is for curing.”