New Scope Could Look Inside Milk Duct For Breast Cancers

Posting Date: 10/23/2000

A fascinating new tool for improving the early detection of breast cancer is a flexible fiber-optic tube known as a ductoscope that can be inserted the milk ducts to look for tissue abnormalities.

Physicians insert this tube that?s about half the width of pencil led into the opening of the nipple after giving the patient a local anesthetic. A powerful lens at the end of the tube then gives surgeons a direct, enlarged view of the inside of the ducts where most breast cancers develop.

The ductoscope was tested at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine on 55 women who had biopsies showing cancer or precancerous changes and the procedure identified abnormal growths in 75 percent of the cases, according to a research letter published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Physicians can use a dye and take special x-rays to look for signs of tumors, but this new diagnostic tool gives a "picture" of tissues from inside the milk ducts that can determine more precisely how far cancer cells have spread.

William C. Dooley, M.D., tested the instrument and says the scope can help identify how far cancer cells extend into surrounding normal tissue so tissue removal by lumpectomy is more accurate.

The ductoscope is a relatively new diagnostic tool still being tested and doesn?t take the place of biopsies, but its growing use should result in better breast conservation when a lumpectomy is needed. It will also improve screening techniques for women with a high risk of breast cancer so if you?re in that category you might want to mention this scope to your doctor.

Source: The Journal of the American Medical Association, Sept. 27, 2000 (Research Letters, William C. Dooley, M.D., Dept. of Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine).

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