Grant: Collaborative Health Research Projects

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 cancer while conserving healthy tissue. Unfortunately, the current resection methods have high positive margin rates (when cancer cells are found on the edge of the resected specimen) of up to nearly 40%. Positive margins are linked to high probability of recurrence and thus require repeat surgery. On average, one out of every three women undergoing breast-conservation surgery needs at least one additional surgery due to positive margins. Repeat surgery leads to increased risk of postoperative complications, impaired cosmetics, delayed radiation therapy, increased psychological distress, and increased costs and risks of 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 breastconservation. Through development of a unique surgical navigation system that integrates intra-operative ultrasound imaging with an acoustic spectroscopy technique, we intend to ensure that the resection cavity is clear of cancer before releasing the patient from the operating table. We take advantage of conventional ultrasound scanners, while building a unique spectroscopic-ultrasound probe, and thus the resulting system will be affordable and accessible to all care facilities in Canada. The proposed system should enable significant reduction in positive margin rates, thereby reducing the number of repeat surgeries, and yielding significant quality of life benefits to patients and a significant reduction in health care costs.