Breast cancer device from Cambridge firm on the way in US

cp418

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Breast-cancer-devi...

Breast cancer device from Cambridge firm on the way in US

JohnSmith

I assume this device is only used during surgery.

As quoted in the article: "Published results from clinical trials have shown that the Sentimag and Sienna+ system is safe, and clinically equivalent to the current gold standard for sentinel lymph node detection."

Since this new system allows for "unprecedented sensitivity and accuracy", this is great news for new cases of BC and those that haven't gone through surgery yet, but perhaps not so great for those that are "early stage" and "node negative" based on existing / traditional SLN detection technology. In other words, some of these people may actually be node positive, but the current technology just didn't find it. Perhaps this new Sentimag and Sienna+ system would have found those people who are actually node positive, rather than node negative, thus altering their treatment decisions.

Hmmm....

Hopeful82014

John, as I'm reading it, this is used to detect the sentinel node(s) which are then biopsied. It doesn't matter whether they are known to be positive or otherwise prior to surgery.

It seems that the benefits would be: no radioactive tracer is injected into breast and ease of location of nodes by surgeon. It might make it easier for surgeons to actually locate the sentinel node/s thus ensuring they are properly biopsied.

I think it's pretty standard for women to have SNB, John, but there are drawbacks to the current procedure.