Wine Women & Woods Tee Off for the Cure Raising Funds for Gamma Probe System at VJH
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Wine Women & Woods is raising funds for a Gamma Probe System which is part of the diagnostic and treatment arsenal available to Oncologists and Surgeons at VJH.
The device is used during breast cancer surgery to detect a previously injected radioactive tracer which is more likely to be absorbed into cancerous cells than healthy tissue. The Gamma Probe will be used annually in about 100 breast surgeries at VJH.
The Gamma Probe technology is based on the injection of radio‐ pharmaceuticals that emit gamma or beta rays. Surgeons use probes, handheld devices, to locate and map sentinel lymph nodes, small non‐palpable breast lesions and cancerous tissues that accumulate the radio‐pharmaceuticals.
A gamma detector has been compared to a metal detector at the beach, the higher the beeping gets and the louder it gets in the operating room, the more likely that the correct lymph node has been found.
VJH currently has one device which limits the ability to perform concurrent specialized procedures within our OR. The current equipment has become severely outdated by today’s standards of service delivery.
Replacement and the upgrade of this piece of equipment is critical because yearly the Hospital’s general surgeons completed about 100 mastectomy or breast related procedures that required the use of a gamma detection probe.
