HU PHYSICS PROFESSOR HELPS DEVELOP MINI CAMERA CANCER DETECTOR

Hampton, VA - Patient trials have begun at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital on a new breast cancer imaging device developed by researchers at Hampton University and the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab). The new device could prove to be instrumental in two key areas: reducing the need for surgical biopsies and enhancing early detection of breast cancer.

The collaborative study hopes to find better ways of detecting and diagnosing breast cancer. The specific goals are numerous: reducing needless breast biopsies, reducing the 65 percent of "false positives" associated with conventional x-ray mammography and obtaining clinical data on the reliability of scintimammography.

A mini gamma camera developed by researchers at Hampton and Jefferson Lab, will enable researchers to better obtain clinical data on the reliability in predicting breast lesion malignancy. The goal is to be able to tell a woman that what once appeared to be cancer, may no longer be a problem. In the future, the scintimammography may find tumors smaller than a dime.

"Mammograms are not very specific and about 70 percent of the time suspicious spots are nothing. Good news for the patient, but it means that the patient underwent a biopsy, a surgical procedure, needlessly," said Dr. Cynthia Keppel, HU physics professor and Jefferson Lab nuclear physicist. "If the camera procedure proves to be a more specific diagnostic, these women would get our test after the mammogram and those 70 percent negative (patients) would get to go home without surgery."

Dr. Nina L. Fabiszewski, of the Eastern Virginia Medical School and the Norfolk General Breast Center, said the study, which is free and may last for about a year, will test about 100 patients. The high-resolution gamma camera may potentially image smaller cancers of the breast than is currently possible with existing cameras.

"The procedure is relatively easy. It requires that the patient stays still," said Fabiszewski, who is the radiologist who wrote the medical protocol for the studies. "There is a very light compression (for the imaging test). After the patient has been injected with radiopharmaceutical called sestamibi, we look for areas with increased activity, which will show up as a dark spot (on the test). Most of the patients seem to be very happy with it."

Stan Majewski, a technology partner at Jefferson Lab, said the mini camera for scintimammography is a new and improved cancer detection device. "This instrument is more like an adjunct which helps mammography. It works as an assistant to detect breast cancer," said Majewski. "The hope is that our device would be able to assist the physician." Keppel, along with a team of Jefferson Lab scientists, developed a break-through cancer detection device in 1999 called the intraoperative beta probe. The surgical instrument, which is only a few inches long and a half inch in diameter, can detect small cancer lesions down to one centimeter in size in patients.

The scintimammography investigators are optimistic about the possibilities this study will create in breast cancer research.

"Mammograms miss cancers about 20 percent of the time. These are mostly in patients with dense breast tissue, or implants, or those who have scars," said Keppel. "Our procedure is insensitive to all of these, and should be able to detect the cancer in these patients."

For more information about the study, contact Fabiszewski at (757) 668-2793.

For additional information, please contact: Kia Dupree (757) 727 - 5255 or via email: kia.dupree@hamptonu.edu