‘Fast but sure’ breast-cancer surgery with light and sound
Researchers are closing in on a way to deploy photoacoustic imaging such that breast-cancer surgeons can skip the wait on histology tests and, instead, tell cancerous tissue from neighboring noncancerous tissue while the patient is still on the table.
The team, comprising research docs from Washington University in St. Louis and the California Institute of Technology, published their work in Science Advances. The news department at Washington University School of Medicine breaks it down on the school’s website.
“This is a proof of concept that we can use photoacoustic imaging on breast tissue and get images that look similar to traditional staining methods without any sort of tissue processing,” says study co-author Deborah Novack, MD, PhD.
The news item points out that the current gold-standard technique—slow but sure tissue sending, staining and waiting—“hasn’t gotten any faster since it was first developed in the mid-20th century.”
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Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.