Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping With Near Infrared Fluorescent Markers

Surgery is the primary curative option for patients with cancer, with the overall objective of complete resection of all cancerous tissue while avoiding damage to healthy tissue. In addition, sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping and resection is an essential step in staging and managing the disease. Even with the latest advancements in imaging technology, incomplete tumor resection in patients with breast cancer is at an alarming rate of 20-25%, with recurrence rates of up to 27%. The clinical need for imaging instruments that provide real-time feedback in the operating room is unmet, largely due to the use of imaging systems based on contemporary technological advances in the semiconductor and optical fields, which have bulky and costly designs with suboptimal sensitivity and co-registration accuracy between multimodal images. To address these challenges, the investigators have introduced an innovative design comprising a bio-inspired multispectral sensor which can significantly improve image-guided surgery. The objective of this clinical study is to determine the feasibility of using a bio-inspired multispectral imaging system to detect sentinel lymph nodes and cancerous tissue during intraoperative procedures in patients with breast cancer.