Submitted Photo General surgeon Jerel Brandt, left, and radiologist Thompson Kamba view a breast image with an implanted Magseed marker. The marker is placed at the site of a cancerous lesion so that days later a surgeon can accurately locate the cancer and remove it.

A breast cancer diagnosis is stressful and treatment can be as well. A new method of marking small breast tumors is lessening that treatment stress for patients who undergo lumpectomies in Minot.

Trinity Health surgeons are using the Magseed magnetic marker as an advanced method of marking the location of a cancer lesion for removal during surgery. The marker consists of a stainless steel bar, about the size of a grain of rice, that is placed into breast cancer lesions.

“We need a localization method to find breast cancers within a breast that are too small to feel,” explained Dr. Gillian Lavik, Trinity general surgeon. “Most places across the country are still using a wire. We’re one of the first facilities to switch over to this technology.”

The standard technique for marking a breast tumor is the placement of a guide wire in the breast on the day of surgery. One end of the wire is inserted into the tumor. The other wire end protrudes from the breast.

Besides the discomfort, there is potential for the wire to migrate with the application and removal of any temporary protective tape that might be placed over the protruding end, Lavik said.

The bar implants are more desirable for patients.

“It’s just nicer for patients – a little bit more convenient. They can have it done on a different day so that their surgery day isn’t so long,” Lavik said. “If a biopsy is being done of a lesion that looks very suspicious for cancer, they can actually put the seed in right at that time, and it saves the patient a procedure.”

Magseed is implanted into a tumor with the guidance of a mammogram, ultrasound or breast MRI. In the operating room, the surgeon then uses a probe that generates an alternating magnetic field to locate the seed and remove it, along with the cancer.

The probe enables the surgeon to be more precise in removing tissue because of the improved ability to estimate the location of the tumor, said Dr. Jerel Brandt, Trinity general surgeon.

“Before, if you just have the wire, you just take out a big wad of tissue, knowing that the wire is in there somewhere. But now, we can significantly decrease the amount of tissue we take out because we know how big the cancer lesion is,” he said.

Endomag, the maker of Magseed marker, describes itself as the only seed technology with four sensing techniques designed to guide surgeons and aid surgical dissection during a breast lumpectomy, according to information from Trinity. It can estimate distance so the surgeon can remove the tumor more precisely from any angle.

From the surgery center’s standpoint, Brandt said, the Magseed makes it easier to schedule surgeries because the implant can be done in advance. Previously, surgeries were limited to one a day because of all the procedures involved. Now, two or three lumpectomies can be performed in a day.

“It’s nice for the patient because they can get their surgeries done sooner. They’re not having this wire sticking out of them, which is awkward and uncomfortable and strange. So it’s nice for the patient experience,” Brandt said.

Lavik said patients already under stress from a cancer diagnosis can avoid some of the additional stress of having to come to the surgery center early to have multiple procedures done.

“That overall patient satisfaction seems to be a little bit higher now that they can get some of these steps out of the way early on, and they feel like something’s being done. They’re not sitting around waiting,” she said.

The ability to find smaller tumors has led to the evolution of localization techniques like Magseed, Lavik said.

“In general, we used to only take out tumors that we could feel because that was the only way we knew they were there. Now we need localization techniques, because we’re finding them earlier and earlier,” she said.

Mammography can find tumors as small as five millimeters, but certain other diagnostic tools can find even smaller tumors, she said.

Because of that diagnostic ability, patients who don’t require localization are rare, Brandt said.

Brandt learned about Magseed in attending a breast cancer conference. Various types of marker implants exist, but Magseed caught his attention because its magnetic seeds are a safer alternative to commonly used radiation seeds. He discussed Magseed with Trinity’s radiology director, who also had just learned about and taken an interest in the magnetic seeds. That led to the decision to enter a pilot project.

Trinity participated in a trial with Magseed last year before officially adopting its use.

“I think, right away, we recognized that it was useful,” Lavik said. “There’s a learning curve with some of those new technologies, but overall, the experience has been very positive.”