New KGH breast cancer biopsy system to 'make that traumatic experience a little bit easier '

Patients in Northamptonshire who once faced an agonising six-week wait for tests on breast lumps will now get their results within 10 minutes thanks to new imaging technology.

Kettering General Hospital has become the first hospital in the UK to adopt a new state-of-the-art imaging and biopsy system which will improve care and reduce delays for suspected breast cancer patients in Northamptonshire.

The Contrast Enhanced Spectral Mammography Biopsy system enables women with breast lesions that would normally need highly specialised MRI biopsies - available only in specialist centres - to have their biopsy right away in a 10-minute procedure at KGH.

KGH’s clinical director of breast screening, Dr Ruxandra Pietrosanu, said: “This is an amazing new way of us quickly and simply carrying out a biopsy that could otherwise might have involved the patient waiting for up to six weeks to visit a specialist hospital.

“Some breast lesions can be biopsied using an ultrasound probe to guide the biopsy needle to the right place and often this is what we would normally do.

“But some breast lesions simply don’t show up on ultrasound and previously that has meant patients having to wait and travel to specialist centre to have an MRI guided biopsy.

“This in itself is not ideal for patients because it means being in a confined MRI scanner tube lying face down for up to an hour – which some people can find very difficult to tolerate.

“But the new technology uses a special dye, combined with x-ray, and a dedicated biopsy tool, which enables us to identify the lesion and take an accurate biopsy quickly and easily in about ten minutes.

“Every minute that patients wait for their results can feel like an eternity so we know that finding out quickly whether they have – or don’t have – cancer is very important to them.”

KGH has been working with the American manufacturer, GE Healthcare, supporting research and work with associated techniques since 2014 and as a result has been given the first £40,000 equipment package to use in the UK.

KGH superintendent radiographer Katalin Woodland said: “We will be the first breast radiology team to be using this new technology in the entire UK. It will be a benefit to our patients who would otherwise have to travel to a specialist centre for an MRI guided biopsy.

“For breast care patients in Northamptonshire it means we can give them an answer on whether they have cancer, or have the all clear, in a shorter amount of time.

“If they have cancer it means we have identified it early and can get on with treatment as soon as possible with an improved chance of a good outcome.”

Kettering General Hospital’s medical director, Dr Rabia Imtiaz, said: “This new technology will help support women who have had an anomaly picked up following a visit to their GP.

“It will make that traumatic experience a little bit easier and in some cases reduce the wait to find out if anything is wrong quite dramatically.

“I am delighted that the breast service at KGH is once again at the forefront of care for women with suspected breast cancer and, where needed, will be able to offer this service to patients from across Northamptonshire.”

Having the new equipment will also help reduce waits for MRI scans at KGH for other patients as an MRI scan can sometimes be ordered to check on a breast lesion before deciding whether to refer the patient for a specialist MRI guided biopsy.

The new equipment will also reduce costs for the NHS Hospitals Group treating patients on site. Patients referred for an MRI guided biopsy at another hospital costs about £2,500 per procedure whereas doing the scan with the new equipment at KGH costs about £300.

Kettering General Hospital has become the first hospital in the UK to adopt a new state-of-the-art imaging and biopsy system which will improve care and reduce delays for suspected breast cancer patients in Northamptonshire.

The procedure will be available – where needed – for all women in Northamptonshire through the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire NHS Group.