Intraoperative Evaluation of Breast Tissues During Breast Cancer Operations Using the MasSpec Pen.

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Biotechnology
• Medical Diagnostics

Background:

• Complete tumor resection is crucial for breast cancer treatment.
• Current in vivo breast tissue assessment technologies are limited.
• Novel technologies are needed for accurate surgical guidance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the MasSpec Pen's performance for intraoperative assessment of breast tissues and margins.
• To determine accuracy based on metabolic and lipid information.
• To assess the utility of a mass spectrometry-based device in surgical settings.

Main Methods:

• A diagnostic study analyzed healthy and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) breast tissue samples.
• Mass spectrometry-based device used for in vivo and ex vivo analysis in operating rooms.
• Statistical classifiers built using molecular data to predict tissue type.

Main Results:

• Classifiers achieved high accuracy: 95.6% (training), 95.5% (validation), 90.6% (test set).
• Intraoperative testing on 147 samples showed 95.9% agreement with postoperative pathology.
• Rich molecular profiles revealed significant metabolic and lipid differences between healthy and IDC tissues.

Conclusions:

• The mass spectrometry-based system shows clinical value for surgeons and patients.
• Enables rapid, molecular-based intraoperative assessment of breast tissue and margins.
• Potential to enhance surgical precision and patient outcomes in breast cancer treatment.