After a lengthy journey, our paper “Intraoperative fluorescence imaging with aminolevulinic acid detects grossly occult breast cancer: a phase II randomized controlled trial” has been published in Breast Cancer Research as an open access article. The journal is widely read globally by general surgeons and breast cancer clinicians, so we are pleased it will receive broad clinical exposure and impact specifically in (breast) surgical oncology.
This trial, led by Dr. DaCosta, was conducted at The Princess Margaret Cancer Center (Toronto, Canada) and demonstrates the importance of strong collaborations between our (imaging) scientists and clinicians at the Princess Margaret Cancer Center. For example, without the commitment and support of our surgeons (Drs. Wey Leong, Alexandra Easson and others) and our pathologist (Dr. Susan Done), we could never have reached this important result. Indeed, they and other Princess Margaret clinicians will soon join our large ongoing North American FDA IND-approved Pivotal Phase 3 RCT as we add PMCC to our growing list of Phase 3 trial sites. Future plans are in progress to expand this line of research to other cancers e.g. head & neck, cervical and lung where real-time intraoperative margin assessment is important.
