OncoRes Medical today announces positive data from the first in-cavity use of its Quantitative Micro-Elastography (QME) Imaging System. The study, titled Quantitative micro-elastography enables in vivo detection of residual cancer in the surgical cavity during breast-conserving surgery was published in Cancer Research.

In this first-in-cavity study, the effectiveness of OncoRes Medical's QME Imaging System was evaluated on its capability to identify residual cancer during BCS procedures. The results concluded that the QME Imaging System can identify residual cancer by directly imaging the surgical cavity, potentially providing a transformative intraoperative solution that can enable more complete cancer excision during BCS.

"We're delighted with the data from our first in-cavity study which concluded that our QME Imaging System has the potential to provide a game changing solution for complete cancer excision during surgery." says Dr Katharine Giles, CEO, OncoRes Medical.  "This data showcases how our QME Imaging System can be used to directly image the surgical cavity during BCS. We're excited about the potential of our QME Imaging System to reduce the number of repeat surgeries and their physical and psychological impact for women with breast cancer."

Around 2.3 million women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, making it the most common cancer diagnosis. Complete surgical excision of the cancer is the foundation of curative treatment. BCS, where the cancerous lump and a small rim of healthy tissue is removed, is the treatment of choice for most women diagnosed with breast cancer and one of the most performed cancer surgeries.

Currently there are no available technologies to assist surgeons to identify residual cancer left inside the patient at the microscale, with surgeons relying on their senses of sight and touch along with macroscopic imaging of the excised lump to determine whether they have completely removed the cancer. As a result, 20–30% of patients will have to return for further surgery as post-operative histopathology conducted in the week after surgery identifies cancer too close to the edge of the excised specimen.

The QME Imaging System developed by OncoRes Medical in collaboration with The University of Western Australia and Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research has already demonstrated high diagnostic accuracy (96%) in detecting cancer in specimens excised during surgery, with findings also published in Cancer Research.

OncoRes Medical's innovative QME Imaging System is a handheld probe used during BCS to help surgeons more accurately identify and remove cancerous tissue. When the probe is applied to a region of interest, the system provides micro-scale maps of the stiffness of the tissue which is a key differentiator from healthy tissue, emulating the surgeon's sense of touch at a microscale. This in turn enables the surgeon to identify and remove residual cancerous tissue within the cavity and therefore could substantially improve outcomes in BCS and reduce repeat operations for women with breast cancer.

In April, OncoRes announced $9.5m in funding which was co-led by Brandon Capital, manager of the Australian Government backed MRCF BTF Fund, and Australian Unity's Future of Healthcare Fund in addition to a Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) Round 12 grant of $3m.