A critical pathology

Cancer is a broad term encompassing 200+ types of malignant tumours, with significant and growing incidence. It figures among the leading causes of death all over the world, and has a major social and psychological impact.

A majority of the more frequent tumours can expand through the lymphatic system, affecting progressively an increasing number of lymph nodes.

Lymph node status is among the most important prognostic indicators for the clinical outcome of patients with solid cancer

Recent developments in the "sentinel node" concept and new technology have resulted in the application of this revolutionary technique in a growing number and variety of tumours, in order to determine if the cancer has spread to regional lymph nodes, and to help in a decisive way in their effective treatment.

Medical and Surgical cross-specialty teams, with the decisive role of surgeons from different specialties, nuclear medicine physicians and pathologists, together with new image-guided techniques and improved oncological treatments, are creating a new hope, based on solid clinical evidence, in the victory of more patients over more types of cancer.

Molecular imaging for surgery, now

Unprecedented nuclear medicine-based options for earlier and more effective detection of primary tumour and lymphatic extensions, with micrometastasis as a key area being developed.

Safe and effective for patients and health care professionals

More than 30 years after the original innovative papers by Dr. R. Cabañas in Urology, and more than 15 from the revolutionary publication of Dr. D. Morton on melanoma, Sentinel Node Biopsy (SLN) has been performed successfully in millions of patients world¬wide, becoming "best practice" in a growing variety of tumours. lts proven clinical results and hundreds of clinical papers from the most advanced oncological centres support its efficacy and effectiveness.

lts absolute safety for patients and healthcare pro-fessionals has been widely demonstrated by clinical studies with the highest level of evidence, and asses¬sed also by radiophysics and radioprotection spe¬cialists.

...But still limited procedure adoption

Technical limitations of existing probes: close contact with tissues and organs, limited field of detection both in depth and diameter, subjective assessment of sound intensity, lack of integration in Hospital/patient documentation systems, learning curve...