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In This Issue:
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Making a Difference
As a breast cancer survivor, Dawn Picotte routinely undergoes mammogram screenings and ultrasound examinations. Last December, she had her first breast MRI, and that's when radiologist Darrell Smith, MD, discovered a tiny spot of suspicious looking tissue.
Just weeks later, Smith and Beth-Ann Lesnikoski, MD, a breast surgeon in BWH's Surgical Oncology Department, performed a cutting edge procedure with pinpoint precision to remove the suspect lesion with MR-guided wire localization.
“I went in for the surgery on a Friday morning and went out with friends that night,” said Picotte, a child psychiatrist who lives and works in Providence. Picotte was the 20th of more than 50 patients at BWH to undergo this new procedure.
“We now have a specialized biopsy device we can use in MRI,” said Smith.
Previously, radiologists could identify potentially cancerous tissue through MR but they could not use magnetic imaging to guide oncology surgeons through a biopsy. “Most metals would completely obliterate the image,” Smith said.
Prior to the development of these MR-compatible needles and wires, which are slightly thicker than a strand of human hair, oncology surgeons would have to remove more healthy tissue to make sure all potentially cancerous tissue is safely removed.
Also, this innovation enables radiologists to find smaller and smaller tumors before the cancer gets a chance to spread to lymph nodes.
The increasing capabilities of the MRI add to the breast cancer arsenal for surgeons like Lesnikoski. “MRIs will not replace mammography or ultrasounds, but it certainly adds to our capabilities,” she said.
For Picotte, 39, her December procedure was exceptionally quick compared with her September 2000 biopsy and months of chemotherapy that followed. “The localization procedure was probably under an hour,” she said.