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 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.