Team devises use of food dye, near infrared light to aid in breast resection
Roughly 1 in 4 women having breast conserving surgery (BCS) return to the surgical suite for further resection because of cancerous tissue left behind due to unclear margins. Investigators at the Optics in Medicine Lab at Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering and Norris Cotton Cancer Center, led by Brian W. Pogue, PhD and Keith Paulsen PhD, with first author and PhD candidate David M. McClatchy III, devised a novel approach to perform near infrared (NIR) optical measurements of resected breast tissue after the margins have had their traditional marking by the surgeon to preserve information about their orientation for potential follow-up surgeries. Their findings are presented in a Letter in the Journal of Biomedical Optics titled, "Molecular dyes used for surgical specimen margin orientation allow for intraoperative optical assessment during breast conserving surgery."