Kent Hospital offers radioactive seed localization for breast cancer surgeries

THE BREAST HEALTH Center at Kent Hospital announced it is offering patients radioactive seed localization, a state-of-the-art technique that significantly improves preoperative and postoperative experiences for patients and providers.  / COURTESY KENT HOSPITAL
THE BREAST HEALTH Center at Kent Hospital announced it is offering patients radioactive seed localization, a state-of-the-art technique that significantly improves preoperative and postoperative experiences for patients and providers. / COURTESY KENT HOSPITAL

WARWICK – The Breast Health Center at Kent Hospital announced it is offering patients radioactive seed localization, a state-of-the-art technique that significantly improves preoperative and postoperative experiences for patients and providers. Kent Hospital, a Care New England facility, reported it is the only Rhode Island venue offering this new procedure. Joseph Wendelken, a spokesperson for the R.I. Department of Health, confirmed to Providence Business News that Kent Hospital is the sole Rhode Island facility that has received this specific license from the DOH, although other hospitals are able to perform this procedure under their broad scope licenses.

Radioactive seed localization is the preliminary procedure for patients having surgery for non-palpable, image-detected breast cancer or high-risk lesions. The technique enhances the surgeon’s ability to locate, dissect and remove the lesion. RSL minimizes the volume of tissue removed compared to the traditional technique – which is a wire localization procedure – by placing the seed, about the size of a grain of rice, at or adjacent to the lesion. Unlike the WLP, where a wire is placed the morning of surgery, RSL implants a radioactive seed up to five days before the surgery.

Developed in the late 1990s and tested in randomized trials since 2001, RSL has gained national popularity and is now the clinical procedure preferred to WLP, reported Kent Hospital. Dr. Candace Dyer and Dr. Naveh Levy, of Kent Hospital’s Breast Center, were trained in RSL at the Mayo Clinic and Baystate Medical.

“This technique will improve our patients’ surgical experience while keeping their care close to home,” Dr. Michael Dacey, Kent Hospital’s president and chief operating officer, said in a statement. “It is always important to provide our patients with care that will result in the best possible outcomes. This new clinical offering will do just that.”

- Advertisement -

When a lumpectomy or segmental mastectomy is performed, extra tissue surrounding the cancer must be removed. While the amount of tissue need not be excessive, the RSL provides the margins necessary to be considered “tumor-free.” With the WLP, margins are more difficult to clear, as surgeons cannot identify the lesion’s exact location and more tissue must be removed. As a result, the breast’s appearance is negatively affected and data indicate a higher likelihood of the seed for a subsequent surgery.

“Radioactive seed localization resolves many of the challenges the WLP presented. The technique allows for more directed surgery, resulting in less pain, better cosmetics and fewer incidences of re-excisions,” said Dyer, The Breast Health Center’s physician director and a surgeon.

The RSL system allows for shorter patient wait times and hospital stays, as well as increased efficiencies in operating rooms, Kent Hospital reported, and the implanted radioactive seed is harmless to the patient, family and hospital staff. The seed is placed by a radiologist to yield minimal radiation exposure, and a mammogram ensures the seed is located as close as possible to the lesion. During surgery, the lesion, additional tissue and the seed are all removed.

To learn more about this procedure or The Breast Health Center at Kent, call (401) 736-3737.

No posts to display