Real-time Breast Cancer Surgery Navigation

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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.**When cancer cells are found on the edge of the resected tissue, the probability of recurrence**is extremely high and the patient must have repeat surgery. On average, one out of every**three or four women undergoing breast-conservation surgery needs at least one additional**surgery due to tumor cells found on the resection margins. Repeat surgery leads to increased**risk of postoperative complications, impaired cosmesis, delaying radiation therapy, increased**psychological distress, increased costs, and risks of undergoing a second general**anesthesia. Repeat surgery often leads to full mastectomy, which is a traumatic experience**for a patient who expected a curative treatment with breast-conservation.**Through development of a novel real-time electromagnetic navigation system, we intend to**improve the accuracy of breast cancer resection, which would lead to a significant reduction**in the number of repeat surgeries, thus yielding major quality of life benefits for patients and**much decreased costs for health care.