The device industry is playing a pivotal role in the evolution toward a more personalized approach to breast cancer management, with ongoing advances in minimally invasive treatment systems, tumor characterization and breast imaging technologies adding to the momentum. In the years ahead, as the breast cancer toolbox expands, the watchword will be “choice,” with physicians and patients offered more treatment options, targeted to their specific needs and desires, than ever before.

The rates of reoperation after breast conservation therapy vary between 25 and 49%, due to the presence of tumor cells remaining in the surrounding tissue after the tumor is removed. NovaScan hopes to reduce the need for these reoperations. Its FastPath residual cancer probe is designed to identify normal, benign and malignant tissue types remaining inside the surgical cavity and in excised tissue in real time during surgery.

This year, more than 192,000 women will be newly diagnosed with breast cancer, according to "US Markets for Breast Cancer Detection and Diagnostic Technologies," a report recently issued by Medtech Insight. Breast cancer represents a medical market growing through demographics, but also driven by advances in technology. The US market for breast cancer screening and diagnosis, which totaled more than $2.1 billion in 2008, is expected to grow at a healthy annual clip of 5.4% to more than $2.8 billion in 2013, despite the present economic uncertainty, including impending health care reform and cost/reimbursement issues.

In breast cancer, the need for less invasive alternatives to surgery is gaping, particularly on the diagnostic side. Following routine screening mammography, 1.4 million women in the US each year have breast biopsies once a radiologist identifies a suspicious lesion. However, only 20% of women undergoing biopsies will be found to have cancer and not just abnormal, but benign growths. Several new companies have gone to the drawing board to remedy the shortcomings of biopsy devices.