Doctors at St.Vincent Carmel Women’s Center are the first in the area to use two new technologies to remove breast cancer, reducing the need for multiple surgeries.
In one new outpatient procedure, doctors can insert a radioactive seed, containing about as much radiation as two mammograms, at a tumor site. Within five days the patient returns for surgery, during which a doctor uses a GPS-like device that works with the implanted seed to navigate the tumor site with increased accuracy.
Once the tumor is removed, a new technology called MarginProbe allows doctors to immediately analyze the outer cells of the tumor to determine if it is cancerous or not. If the cells are cancerous, doctors can immediately continue operating. Previously, doctors had to wait for lab results and schedule a second surgery, if necessary.
