Magnetic tissue marker for localising breast cancers

在世界范围内，乳腺癌筛查的普及程度越来越高，这意味着癌症往往是在早期阶段被发现的，因为它们只能在成像下看到，而不能通过其他方式定位。在这种情况下，外科医生需要一个引导标记来定位要切除的肿瘤。目前去除这种“不可触及”肿瘤的“金标准”是导线引导定位（WGL），放射科医生通过成像（超声/MRI/ x射线）在病变部位放置导丝，外科医生去除导线周围的组织。虽然WGL是有用的，但它也带来了一些挑战：金属丝仅在手术当天插入，因此在放射学和手术之间的安排可能具有挑战性；金属丝可能会移位或移动，降低切除癌组织的准确性；而且插入对病人来说是痛苦的。Endomagnetics已经确定了一种基于其磁检测技术的新定位技术的机会，该技术将克服当前方法的缺点，提高效率，降低成本，减少手术次数，减少患者的不便。这个TSB资助的项目将展示这种新标记技术的第一个概念验证。

Around the world the increasing prevalence of breast cancer screening means that cancers aremore often being detected at an early stage when they are only visible under imaging andcannot otherwise be located. In these cases, the surgeon requires a guide marker to locate thetumour to be removed. The current ‘gold standard’ for removing such 'non-palpable' tumoursis wire-guided localisation (WGL), where the radiologist places a guide wire at the lesion sitevia imaging (Ultrasound/MRI/X-ray), and the surgeon removes the tissue around the wire.While WGL is useful, it presents some challenges: The wire is only inserted on the day ofsurgery, so scheduling between radiology and surgery can be challenging; the wire canbecome dislodged or move, decreasing accuracy in the removal of cancerous tissue; andinsertion can be painful for patients.Endomagnetics has identified an opportunity for a new localisation technique based on itsmagnetic detection technology, which will overcome the drawbacks of the current approachand offer improvements in efficiency, and cost as well as reducing the number of proceduresand the inconvenience for patients. This TSB funded project will demonstrate the first proofof concept for this new marker technique.