Technologies revealed that streamline breast cancer treatment

Jersey Shore and Ocean Medical Center now offer accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) for breast cancer treatment using the CONTURA ® Multi-Lumen Balloon (MLB) Catheter. This unique method of radiation treatment delivery involves the placement of a deflated balloon in the lumpectomy cavity post-surgery through a small incision. The balloon is then filled with saline and temporarily left in place for up to 10 days during treatment. Radiation treatment is administered "from the inside out," traveling through the catheter, ensuring that only the tissue closest to the balloon is affected by radiation. Treatment is delivered two times a day, six hours apart, for five days. At the end of the treatment the balloon is deflated and gently removed.

"Traditionally, the standard of care after a lumpectomy has been whole breast radiation for 6-7 weeks. This time is greatly reduced using the Contura catheter, positively impacting our patients' lives. And, the precision of the treatment means minimal effects on adjacent tissues, steering radiation away from the chest wall and muscles, as well as the heart and lungs," says Douglas A. Miller, M.D., medical director of Radiation Oncology at Jersey Shore.

Jersey Shore's Faxitron system, also available at Riverview Medical Center, reduces breast biopsy and lumpectomy procedure times, and ultimately improves patient care. Point-of-care specimen radiography allows instant high-resolution digital images of breast biopsy and lumpectomy specimens directly in the operating room. Twenty minutes or more can be saved for the patient under anesthesia, and connectivity allows the surgeon and radiologist to view the image simultaneously.

"Faxitron allows real time breast specimen imaging in the operating room so that the surgeon can determine if the resection is adequate and if additional margins need to be obtained. This reduces operative time, while allowing the surgeon to remove additional margins at the time of the original surgery in order to avoid follow up surgeries to achieve negative breast margins. Achieving negative margins with initial surgery is our primary goal in order to avoid delays in starting adjuvant radiation and chemotherapy," says Denise Johnson-Miller, M.D., FACS, medical director for Breast Surgery at Jersey Shore University Medical Center.