An Optical Assay System for Intraoperative Assessment of
Tumor Margins in Patients with Breast Cancer
DTRI and Coulter Foundation
Ramanujam (PI), Wilke (co-PI) and Geradts (co-PI)

An important predictor of local recurrence after breast conserving therapy (BCT) is pathologic margin status. Reported rates of re-excision as a result of close or positive surgical margins are high (20-30%). Intra operative frozen section and touch prep cytology have been developed to assess surgical margins and guide additional resection at the time of the initial operation. However, these techniques have not been adopted because of the need for specially trained personnel (pathologist), prolonged surgical time required for specimen processing (20-40 minutes) and limited surveillance of the tumor margins. Compelling reasons exist to exploit light based technologies for intra operative assessment of breast tumor margins. This technique is low cost, fast and sensitive to differences in the composition of adipose, fibrous and malignant breast tissues. We are developing an optical assay system based on ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) optical spectroscopy for intra operative assessment of tumor margins in patients with breast cancer.