It’s good news for breast cancer patients at Bradford Teaching Hospitals with the announcement that the Foundation Trust has been successful in achieving ongoing funding for Magseed technology – an innovation that helps a surgeon locate a tumour and increases the probability of completely removing it.
The initiative is a painless alternative to a traditional process of placing a wire in the tumour to guide the surgeon to the lesion during the operation.
Not only does it reduce patients’ time in hospital it also lessens the number of procedures they have to undergo.
The technology initially started at the Trust and Airedale NHS Foundation Trust in 2022 after the hospitals were successful beneficiaries of the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance’s Innovation Bursary funding programme. The Innovation Bursary awards funding to initiatives that promote earlier cancer diagnosis and better care.
The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance has since worked with the Trust on our successful joint bid for Magseed technology to be funded on an ongoing ‘business as usual’ basis ensuring that more patients will benefit.
Surgeon Cathy Tait, Associate Specialist and the Trust’s Multidisciplinary Team Lead for Breast Cancer Surgery, said:
This commitment to ongoing funding is fantastic news for our patients as Magseed has transformed the hospital experience for our 150 breast cancer patients who require lumpectomies here at the Trust every year.
This cutting-edge technology brings huge benefits including reduced hospital appointments which helps decrease a woman’s stress, as well as bringing greater surgical accuracy in pinpointing the tumour, which leads to less breast tissue being removed, meaning a better cosmetic outcome for our patients.
For the Trust, it has brought better operating theatre utilisation as surgery can be scheduled for any time of the day and not just afternoons, which it was previously (as the patient had to come to the hospital in the morning for the wire to be located).
A spokesperson for the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance, stated:
We worked closely with both Bradford and Airedale trusts when we awarded funding to them in the first of the Cancer Alliance’s innovation competition in 2021/22.
They decided to bid for ongoing funding, and we were able to bring them together to submit a joint proposal for ‘business as usual’ funding which was successful.
This is great news and will bring huge benefits to breast cancer patients in our region.
Due to imaging and screening advancements, breast cancer is often caught at earlier stages. However, early detection means that cancers are typically smaller and therefore harder to locate during surgery. Studies have shown that about 50% of all lesions are ‘non-palpable’ which means surgeons cannot find them by touch alone.
Magseed is a magnetic, unbreakable seed, used to ‘mark’ the location of the lump for removal in surgery. It is extremely small, smaller than a single grain of rice and for that reason, it cannot be felt when placed in the breast before surgery and is completely painless. It is placed inside the lump and helps to guide the surgeon to the exact location of the cancer.