Medical Device Manufacturer -Clear Margins Cancer

Question

MarginProbe®

What if your cancer was removed in just one surgery?

With MarginProbe, surgeons can assess the tissue in the operating room to give them greater confidence that they successfully removed all cancer in the first lumpectomy surgery.

Answer 1

Sources: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7201251/

https://www.curetoday.com/view/marginprobe-system-is-effective-tool-in-assessing-margins-during-breast-cancer-surgery

It appears that the Margin Probe's ability to remove cancer in one round is due to its ability to asses the margins of the cancerous tissue on a microscopic level to make sure it is all removed. Previously doctors would cut out the visible cancerous tissue, which could potentially leave some left behind that is unseen to the naked eye. The product's goal is the make sure the women under going the lumpectomy surgeries for breast cancer do not have to have a second surgery to remove the remaining tissue.

The use of the Margin Probe has decreased the rate of having cancer cells at the edge of the lumpectomy, but is not 100% successful in all cases. The probe decreased the rate of cancer cells left behind by 11%. Another issue with the probe is that it is overly sensitive and over 50% of the time it registered non-cancerous tissue as cancerous tissue that did not actually need to be cut out.

The probe is expensive and not 100% accurate but it does decrease the chance of a potential secondary surgery

Comments

Good work explaining that the claim -- which sounds more like marketing --  isn't actually 100% factually accurate. Like you said, it's not full proof and might actually lead to removing too much tissue. I also like that you provided two sources and plenty of data and information. Nice job.