Breast cancer treatment options available locally have been strengthened following a $100,000 investment in new excision technology at St Andrew’s Toowoomba Hospital.

Following considerable consultation and advice from local breast surgeons, St Andrew’s recently adopted new MagSeed technology that provides significant advances over common, traditional methods used to localize impalpable breast lesions (screen-detected-cancers) before surgery.

The new Sentimag Magnetic Detection System is one of the most accurate techniques available for localising breast cancers, involving the insertion of a uniquely manufactured magnetic ‘seed’, the size of a grain of rice, into the lesion instead of traditionally using a wire, resulting in patients experiencing less pain and discomfort, and it can be placed weeks in advance instead of on the day of surgery.

Benefits are also experienced by surgeons too, being able to perform a more precise and accurate operation to ensure the only tissue removed from a patient is tissue that contains disease.

St Andrew’s-based breast surgeon Dr Ian Ng said he and his colleague Dr Eric Donaldson were “very excited” to be able to offer patients in Toowoomba MagSeed localisation for breast cancers.

“It is one of the most advanced ways of localising a breast cancer and has many advantages over more traditional techniques. This will result in a better experience for our patients and better overall outcomes,” Dr Ng said.

This investment represents the significant commitment of St Andrew’s Toowoomba Hospital to provide advanced, safe and timely care to the local community and further strengthens the hospital’s renowned breast care service, the only non-metropolitan service of its kind, and specialist team.