Laura Johnson1, Geoff Charles-Edwards2,
Jyoti Parikh3, Margaret Hall-Craggs4, Tobias Schaeffter5,
Quentin Pankhurst6, Michael Douek1
1Research Oncology, Kings College
London, London, United Kingdom; 2Medical Physics, Guy's & St
Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust; 3Radiology, Guy's & St Thomas'
NHS Foundation Trust; 4Department of Imaging & Medical Physics
& Bioengineering, University College London; 5Imaging
sciences, Kings College London; 6Royal Institution of Great
Britain
We have previously demonstrated intraoperative identification of iron oxide containing SLNs in patients with early breast cancer following subcutaneous injection using an in-house developed magnetometer, the SentiMag. To optimize this technique we analysed the pharmacokinetics of SPIOs using dynamic MRI scanning to visualise loss of signal intensity at the SLN in 'real time'. The transit of tracer to node is variable and is not predictable based on primary tumour or patient demographics. 5 patients (45%) demonstrated loss of signal intensity of the SLN in the dynamic scan. 6 patients (55%) demonstrated loss of enhancement of the node on delayed T2* weighted scans after 120 minutes.