Localization Devices and the Surgeon Innovator

Excerpt

In a quest to minimize shine-through and allow optimal identification of sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) close to the primary injection site, Nieuwenhuis et al. developed a SLN detection device, presented in this issue of Annals of Surgical Oncology, that utilizes supramagnetic nanoparticles and is compared with a gamma probe and an industry comparator utilizing supramagnetic nanoparticles.¹ In addition to being clinicians, technical experts, trialists, and administrative leaders, surgeons have a long history of being innovators and early adopters of disruptive technologies. This is evident in the operative management of breast cancer, as management has progressed from removing palpable masses to clinically occult lesions and from axillary lymph node dissection to targeted removal of previously positive lymph nodes that have responded to neoadjuvant therapy. …