Bangalore: India-based HealthCare Global (HCG) introduced the Intra Operative 3D Radioguided Surgery System (declipseSpect), a cutting edge technology developed by Germany-based SurgicEye to treat cancer, in India.

Dr Joerg Traub, founder of SurgicEye, said that it leads to a bigger leap in cancer treatment. "I am convinced that HCG is the best location for the first declipseSPECT installation in Asia. The declipseSPECT will add one more innovation to HCG's high quality service, providing 3D imaging and guidance support for least invasive surgery and quality assurance in the operating room to document the complete removal," said Dr Joerg Traub.

Dr Mahesh Bandemegal, consultant, surgical oncologist, HCG, said, "The usage and benefits of declipseSpect are varied. This new technology helps us to identify and image the sentinel node intraoperatively. This will help us in accurate localization of lymph node with smaller incisions. Mainly used for breast cancer, skin cancer, oral cancer, gynecological. It is the most accurate way of detecting and avoiding false negativity."

Dr Krithika Murugan, consultant, surgical oncologist, HCG, added, "Traditionally we were using the Sentinel (Gamma) probe to locate the sentinel lymph node, the accuracy of this was less desirable and involved subjective guesswork on the part of the surgeon. The declipseSpect, on the other hand, makes this process easier, as it not only gives a 3D location of the lymph node, but also tells the surgeon of the accurate depth at which the lymph node can be found. It is therefore, an excellent navigation tool which helps in negating unnecessary taking out of additional nymph nodes. It is also helpful in localizing very early lesions of the breast not clinically palpable using the ROLL technique."

The declipseSpect is a freehand SPECT device intraoperative 3D imaging for radioguided surgery. Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is a method used as a minimally invasive procedure to find the first nodes in the lymphatic system in the drain of the tumor as an indicator for precise tumor staging.