Less Surgery

Israeli probe helps doctors know
they have cancer-free margins.

Times of Israel

Need Orthopedic Care?
Come to St. Joe's

I

srael’s Dune Medical Devices has developed an instru-
ment to help women with breast cancer avoid undergo-
ing dreaded follow-up surgery to remove residual cancer
cells after a tumor is removed. The device is already being
used by surgeons on patients in more than 100 hospitals in
the U.S. and in Israeli medical centers.
When women undergo lumpectomies to
remove breast cancers, the cancerous tissue is
then sent to labs to ensure the margins surround-
ing the tumor are clear of cancerous cells, so that
the patients are truly cancer-free. Unfortunately,
statistics show that when lab results are released,
after a process that can take several weeks, one in
four women is asked to return for re-excision —
secondary surgery — if the tumors tested reveal
that the margins are not clear, indicating some
cancer cells remain in the patient’s body.
“We have developed the only technology in the
world that has a commercial product that allows
Gal Aharonowitz surgeons in operating rooms, in real time, to
check the margins of the tumor, identify cancer-
ous tissue and decide on the spot if more tissue
needs to be removed or not,” said Gal Aharonowitz, general
manager in charge of Israeli operations.
Clinical trials show the company’s MarginProbe device
reduces the need for re-excision by 51 percent if it is used
during the initial procedure, Aharonowitz said. Commercial
use of the product has shown a drop of as much as 80 per-
cent in the need for repeat surgery.
The device consists of a hand-held gadget — a single-use
probe that looks like a large pen or ultrasound instrument —
and a console. After the tumor is removed, while the patient
is still on the operating table, the surgeon uses the probe to
check the margins of the just-removed tissue. Sensors on
the probe send signals to the tissue, and a signal, both visual
and acoustic, gets reflected back, which is then classified
as either positive, indicating there are still cancerous cells
on the margins, or negative, giving the all-clear to close the
patient.
The radio-frequency spectroscopy technology used by the
probe measures the electrical properties of the cells and can
distinguish cancer cells from healthy ones within a second,
Aharonowitz said.

INCREASING USE
The product got FDA approval at the end of 2012 and started
marketing in the U.S. in 2013. It has also received the neces-
sary regulatory approvals from European authorities.
The company is now seeking to increase the use of the
device in the U.S. and in Israel, and to expand the applica-
tions of the technologies to other cancers, like prostate, lung
and liver cancers, he said.
“We are already working on these new applications —
more specifically on a smart biopsy device that will allow
surgeons or radiologists to identify and take the right tissue
sample out. We expect this to be available in the market in
the near term,” Aharonowitz said.

Shannon Striebich
President

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arthritic knees, you can count on St.
Joseph Mercy Oakland's cutting-edge
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for patient safety and quality of care and is considered one of the best 100
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