Breast Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Breast Cancer, including details on symptoms, genetics, screening, treatment, information.

A device for real-time, intraoperative margin assessment in breast-conservation surgery.

Karni T, Pappo I, Sandbank J, Lavon O, Kent V, Spector R, Morgenstern S, Lelcuk S

Breast Care Institute, Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, Zrifin Beer Yaakov, 70300, Israel. tami@karni.org

BACKGROUND: This trial was designed to study performance of a novel handheld probe (Dune Medical Devices, Caesarea, Israel) in intraoperative detection of positive margins and its potential benefit toward minimizing the positive margin rate. METHODS: The probe was intraoperatively applied to 57 lumpectomy specimens. Surgeons were blinded to device output, and surgical decisions were not affected by probe data. Probe readings were compared with histological analysis per margin and per patient. RESULTS: Nineteen of 22 (86%) pathology-positive patients were intraoperatively detected with device use. Per-margin sensitivity was .71, and specificity was .68, maintained within a range of positive margin definitions (0-.4 cm). CONCLUSIONS: The device is an effective tool for intraoperative detection of positive margins with the potential for significant positive margin rate reduction.

Published 10 September 2007 in Am J Surg, 194(4): 467-73.
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