WESTBOROUGH, Mass., Feb. 21, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) and the American Society of Radiation Therapy (ASTRO) have released a consensus guideline for margins in breast conserving surgery. The American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBS) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) have also endorsed this guideline. The panel concluded that positive margins (detected post-surgery as ink on invasive carcinoma or ductal carcinoma in situ) are associated with a two-fold increase in the risk of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR) compared to negative margins. In December, results of the MarginProbe study were presented at the 2013 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, showing a reduction in positive margins originating from the main lumpectomy specimen of over 50% (from 13% to 6%) using the recommended criteria.
"Positive margins have always been a critical challenge in breast conserving surgery," said Dr. Mark Gittleman, Past President of the ASBS. "As the SSO has indicated, reducing the positive margin rate has tremendous potential to reduce re-excision rates, improve cosmetic outcomes, and decrease healthcare costs. The use of MarginProbe is highly complementary to these guidelines, with the potential to reduce positive margin rates and repeat lumpectomies even further."
"We at Dune Medical are excited to see the spotlight of the breast cancer community directed at this critical subject to breast cancer patients," said Dr. Dan Hashimshony, Founder and CEO of Dune Medical Devices. "We hope and believe these new guidelines for post-operative margin assessment combined with intraoperative tools such as the MarginProbe which detects positive margins in real time, will enable more patients to avoid repeat surgery following lumpectomy."
About Dune Medical Devices
Dune Medical Devices was founded in 2002 by Dr. Dan Hashimshony to realize the extraordinary medical potential of its proprietary tissue characterization technology. Offering surgeons and radiologists the real time ability to identify cancerous tissues and react immediately, this technology holds the promise for a broad range of surgical and diagnostic applications.
Dune Medical Devices is a privately held company with offices in the U.S. and Israel. For more information, please visit www.dunemedical.com
Michael Graffeo Vice President Marketing & Sales Dune Medical Devices 508-620-2782 /
