Intraoperative assessment of surgical margins during breast conserving surgery of ductal carcinoma in situ by use of radiofrequency spectroscopy

Assessment of margins when excising ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast is difficult. Frozen section is unreliable and specimen intraoperative radiography only provides information regarding the extent of the visualized lesion or the microcalcifications. A multi-center, single arm study was conducted to evaluate the benefit of a novel device (MarginProbe ^®) in intraoperative margin assessment during breast conserving surgery (BCS) of DCIS, and the associated reduction of re-excisions. We present results for 22 patients, from those enrolled in our institution. The device was used as an adjunctive tool to current practice. Based on permanent histology reporting, the rate of successful procedures was 86%. The improvement in intraoperative assessment with device use was associated with a reduction in re-excision rates, from 38.8 to 18%.