The device applies an adhesive film to breast tissue to prevent damage when it is sliced for microscopic inspection.
(Credit: Will Kirk)
A prototype device created by John Hopkins University grad students can enable a pathologist to inspect excised breast tissue mid-surgery to determine whether a cancerous tumor has been fully removed.
The prototype’s ability to dramatically reduce the time to inspect breast tissue — down to as quickly as 20 minutes — could ultimately decrease, if not flat out eliminate, the need for a second operation on the same tumor, John Hopkins announced this week.
One in five women who have surgery to remove cancerous breast tissue have to go back for follow-up surgery because not all the diseased tissue is removed. That amounts to about 60,000 patients annually in the U.S.
The four grad students became aware of the problem in 2012 during the school’s year-long biomedical engineering master’s program, when they were tasked with designing new medical tools to address urgent health care issues. Breast cancer surgeons told the students that they are “… [Read more]
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