Surgeons’ at the NYU Langone Medical Center have been successfully using MarginProbe in patients with early stage breast cancer.
The presence of tumor cells at the margins of breast lumpectomy specimens is associated with an increased risk of tumor recurrence. Evidence has shown that 20-30 % of patients undergoing breast-conserving surgery require second procedures to achieve negative margins.
The Division of Breast Surgery at the NYU Langone was the pioneer institution in New York City to use this novel technology, called MarginProbe device (Dune Medical Devices Ltd, Caesarea, Israel), which provides real-time intraoperative assessment of lumpectomy margins.
This technique was found to improve surgeon’s ability to identify and resect cancer with margins, thus reducing the number of patients requiring re-excision.
The study entitled “A Randomized Prospective Study of Lumpectomy Margin Assessment with Use of MarginProbe in Patients with Nonpalpable Breast Malignancies”, was published in the Annals of Surgical Oncology journal.
This multicenter randomized prospective study was led by Dr. Freya Schnabel, MD, Director of Breast Surgery at NYU Langone, and examined 596 patients with non-palpable breast malignancies who underwent excision. The researchers then used MarginProbe to examine the specimens excised, observing that positive margins on positive main specimens were resected in 62 % of the cases, concluding this technology is effective when compared with traditional methods.
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In a recent press release Dr. Schnabel said, “The greatest benefit of MarginProbe is that we can perform this additional tissue removal during a patient’s initial surgery, thereby sparing them the anxiety and frustration of additional follow-up surgery. We found that adjunctive use of the MarginProbe device in the operating room significantly improved surgeons’ ability to identify additional cancer cells on the margins of removed tumors. MarginProbe’s detection of additional cancer cells along the margins of removed tissue indicates that additional tissue removal is warranted. This, in turn, improves the rate of a completely successful lumpectomy with no additional follow-up surgery required.”
Dr. Schnabel has used the technology and commented on its encouraging results, “The MarginProbe allows us to increase the likelihood that patients will leave the OR with a successful lumpectomy. This technology is a real advance, and represents a further refinement of the lumpectomy procedure.”