Leading UK lifestyle magazine explains how Magseed® is reducing the pandemic backlog
The Magseed® marker has been labelled “revolutionary” by NHS doctor and TV presenter, Dr Dawn Harper, for its role in helping NHS breast cancer services treat more patients.
Writing in her Health News weekly column for Platinum – one of the UK’s leading lifestyle magazines – Dr Harper explained how many NHS hospitals continue to face a backlog of breast cancer appointments post-pandemic.
In the column, it was explained how seed markers like Magseed® are now commonly being used in cancerous tissue removal to replace the previous, outdated method of guidewires, which have been around for over half a century.
Formerly the standard practice, guidewires have shown a tendency to move around once placed, which can make the surgical removal of cancerous tissue much harder. They also cause discomfort for patients, with the wire protruding from the breast – often for hours at a time.
Unlike the guidewire process which requires placement and surgery to take place on the same day, the tiny Magseed® marker can be placed in tissue at any time ahead of surgery. Then, when the surgeon is ready to remove the tissue, it can be easily found using a magnetic probe.
One of the many patients to have benefitted from the Magseed® procedure is a woman named Paula, who was treated at the Nightingale Centre in Manchester after high-risk DCIS was found during a routine mammogram.
Sharing her experience of surgery with a Magseed® in Dr Harper’s column, Paula explained how her operation had been a tremendous success and “the cancer was found and removed so quickly and easily”.
Over 80,000 women, including Paula, have now received a better standard of breast localisation with the Magseed® marker across the world and we hope it continues to play a significant role in reducing the treatment backlog.