Doctors are finding breast cancer earlier. But smaller tumors can be difficult to see and feel, so surgeons have to estimate how much to remove while still conserving breast tissue. There's a new, promising technique that could take out the guess work, and help patients avoid a second surgery.
Therese Tempereau thought a lumpectomy to remove a small cancerous tumor in her breast was the end of a nightmare. But lab tests proved otherwise, "A week and a half later, I received a call from my surgeon and she said that I didn't have what they call clear margins and she needed to go back in and take more tissue."
"In about 20% of the cases, we have to go back and do a second operation," says surgical oncologist Dr. Sarah Blair.
Now researchers are working on a way to help patients dodge that second surgery. "We could take all their tumor out in one operation and make sure the edge of the tumor was clear," according to Dr. Blair.
The technique is called automated microscopy. In this demonstration, surgeons press special slides against tissue they've cut out. "When you stick the tissue to the slide, the cancer cells come off and the normal cells don't," says Dr. Blair.
The cells are stained with a fluorescent tag, but they're not sent to a lab. They're put into a microscope where an automated computer program analyzes them on the spot - while the patient's still on the operating table. "We wanted to develop a process that would at least speed things up so the pathologist could just check it quickly and say, I agree with the computer, go ahead and take more tissue."
It could be the patients first - and last - operation. And that's a relief. "To hear that I needed a second surgery was almost like, in a way, going back to square one," says Therese.
The ultimate goal is to get results using the new method within 20 minutes. Dr. Blair says a single operation also means less scar tissue and less deformity. Researchers hope to have the new automated technology available within the next year.
