Phase I: real-time electromagnetic navigation technology for breast cancer surgery

乳腺癌影响女性一生中的1/8，是女性癌症相关死亡的第二大原因。理想的治疗方法是在乳癌早期进行乳房保乳手术，在保留乳房健康部分的同时切除癌症。遗憾的是，在目前的切除方法中，残留肿瘤往往会残留，而且复发的可能性很高，需要再次手术。重复手术通常需要乳房切除，对于希望通过保乳获得根治治疗的患者来说，这是一种创伤经历。 平均而言，每三到四名接受保乳手术的女性中，就有一人需要至少额外做一次手术，因为利润率为正。重复手术会增加术后并发症的风险，推迟放射治疗，增加心理痛苦，以及与二次全身麻醉相关的风险。 通过开发一种新型的实时电磁导航系统，我们打算提高初次手术的准确性，显著减少乳腺癌患者的重复手术次数。我们希望提高这些患者的生活质量，并降低加拿大的医疗保健成本。

Breast cancer affects 1 in 8 women during their lives and is the second-leading cause of female cancer related deaths. The ideal treatment is breast conservation surgery during its early stage to remove the cancer while conserving healthy parts of the breast. Unfortunately, with the current resection methods residual tumor often remains and is linked with a high probability of recurrence, requiring repeat surgery. Repeat surgery often requires mastectomy, a traumatic experience for a patient who expected a curative treatment with breast-conservation. On average, one out of every three or four women undergoing breast-conservation surgery needs at least one additional surgery due to positive margins. Repeat surgeries lead to increased risk of postoperative complications, delaying radiation therapy, increased psychological distress, and risks associated with a second general anesthesia. Through development of a novel real-time electromagnetic navigation system, we intend to improve the accuracy of the initial surgery, significantly reducing the number of repeat surgeries for breast cancer patients. We expect to improve quality of life for these patients and decreased the cost of health care in Canada.