Concerns over radioisotope administration have kept some facilities from using radioactive seed placement for the preoperative localization of nonpalpable breast lesions. So does that mean they’re forced to stick with wire placement? According to a new study published in the American Journal of Roentgenology, early evidence suggests a nonradioactive inducible magnetic seed system could be an effective tool for localizing nonpalpable breast lesions.

Between October 2016 and February 2017, 64 patients had a total of 73 nonradioactive seeds placed in their breasts. Vendor support was provided to radiologists when needed, since the technology was still so new. Overall, all 73 seeds were placed within 1 cm of the target. Seventy percent of the seeds were located within 1 mm of the target.

“We have shown that this technique is accurate and useful across the range of conditions for which wire localization is used, including both benign and malignant processes,” wrote Elissa R. Price, MD, department of radiology and biomedical imaging at the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues. “For malignant cases, in situ, lobular, and ductal lesions were included. Further studies are under way at our institution, including a comparison of margin status and reexcision rates in wire- versus seed-localized lesions and a survey of breast imaging technologists, radiologists, and surgeons.”

Also, all five breast surgeons at their facility involved with this study liked using the nonradioactive seeds and requested that it become the facility’s default localization technique moving forward.

While this technology is still quite new, Price and colleagues wrote that it is “an effective alternative to wire placement for preoperative localization of nonpalpable breast cancer.”

“Larger studies are needed to validate these data and to further elucidate the strengths and weakness of the system,” the authors concluded.