Grant: Collaborative Health Research Projects (NSERC partnered)

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 the cancer while conserving healthy parts of the breast. When cancer cells are found on the edge of the resected tissue, the probability of recurrence is extremely high and the patient must have repeat surgery. On average, one out of every three or four women undergoing breast-conservation surgery needs at least one additional surgery due to tumor cells found on the resection margins. Repeat surgery leads to increased risk of postoperative complications, impaired cosmesis, delaying radiation therapy, increased psychological distress, increased costs, and risks of undergoing 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 breast-conservation. Through development of a novel real-time electromagnetic navigation system, we intend to improve the accuracy of breast cancer resection, which would lead to a significant reduction in the number of repeat surgeries, thus yielding major quality of life benefits for patients and much decreased costs for health care.