Breast cancer is a neoplasm that affects one out of eight women and, only in Campania, there are 15,000 thousand cases in Italy each year, equal to 50,000. The numbers are truly alarming and for this reason it is important to reiterate the importance of prevention!
Diagnosing early or preventing the onset of breast cancer is extremely important: improving the preventive aspect means being able to intervene promptly on breast cancer, thus obtaining a better therapeutic result.
How were the non-palpable lesions identified to date?
Currently, the standard procedure to locate non-palpable breast lesions intraoperatively is represented by the metallic or dermographic landmark. The dermographic landmark is burdened by the risk of cancellation of the landmark and by the failure to find the lesion. The wire guided locations, on the other hand, have numerous limitations, including the movement of the wire, the difficulties in programming the interventions and the patient’s discomfort.
What are the latest news for the prevention of non-palpable breast injuries?
At our Institute, a new device consisting of a non-radioactive seed is available which, with the help of a device called a ” magnetometer “, allows us to magnetically identify small and non-palpable lesions, allowing us to remove a minimum amount of breast tissue with extremely small incisions.
What does the new method consist of?
The small magnetic marker is positioned (under ultrasound or stereotactic guidance) within the non-palpable breast lesion up to 30 days before surgery. In the operating room, with the use of a probe that acts as a magnetometer, it is possible to identify the seed and the lesion through a minimal surgical incision guaranteeing the patient excellent cosmetic results.
What results can be obtained?
At the Department of Senology (UOSD Senological Surgery Day Surgery and UC Senological Surgery) of the National Cancer Institute of Naples, 47 breast surgery operations were performed with the use of invasive method: 30 out of 47 markers were inserted under ultrasound guidance and 17 out of 47 under stereotaxic guidance the afternoon before surgery.
The introduction of this marker was easy to perform and the recovery of the lesions was carried out by the surgeons of the Department and entrusted, as the person in charge of the procedure, to the undersigned.
The learning curve of the method was rapid for all radiologists and surgeons. All interventions (lasting 28 minutes on average) were performed with a peri-areolar incision and the lesions were identified without intra- and post-operative complications. The average diameter of the identified lesions was 9.6 mm and the average volume of removed breast tissue was 2.5cm³. The cosmetic results have been excellent.
This new equipment has allowed uninterrupted planning of the operating room, highly accurate localization of the lesion and high patient satisfaction, with smaller skin incisions and a smaller removal of breast parenchyma , ensuring a more satisfactory cosmetic result.
In addition to identifying and excising the lesion, is it also possible to carry out something else?
Yes, we have developed a protocol, always with the same method and equipment, for the identification of the Sentinel Lymph Node and its excision. We are already at about more than 15 cases treated, where a magnetic tracer using nanoparticles is used which is inoculated in the periarolar site on the morning of the operation, so that the patient is no longer subject to nuclear medicine with the use of radioisotopes. Obviously this method is experimental: we are testing it by always comparing it with the tests already in use and accredited and at the moment the results are completely superimposable on traditional data