New laser imaging device for breast cancer helps surgeon’s accuracy

Australian researchers have developed a prototype tool they claim will improving the accuracy of surgeons removing breast cancer. It’s been designed to help surgeons detect minute cancers in real time and reduce the number of patients who require follow up operations. It doesn’t look life-changing, but this invention could help to eliminate the need for breast cancer patients to experience the trauma of repeat surgeries. Researchers from the University of Western Australia are hoping it will be used to replace the current surgical techniques which some doctors regard as primitive.

Current breast cancer diagnosis can be distressing and painful over a number of weeks.
Multiple stages can involve visiting a GP, being sent to a specialist for an x-ray mammogram, having an ultrasound, before undergoing a needle, a punch or a vacuum assisted biopsy, as well as placing one breast at a time between two metal plates in a painful clamp.
However, a new imaging system being developed by scientists at the University of Twente, in the Netherlands intends to remove the discomfort and uncertainty involved in a diagnosis.