Intraoperative Imagery of Breast Cancer With Folate-FITC (EC17)

Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second cause of cancer mortality in women. There are approximately 200,000 new cases of breast cancer a year. Classically, breast cancers are divided into two groups, invasive and non-invasive. A mainstay of the treatment of both of these types is surgical resection not only for therapeutic purposes but also for diagnostic purposes. Breast conserving therapy includes surgical lumpectomy and post-operative radiation. However, despite best surgical practices, when patients undergo BCT anywhere from 20 - 40% of these patients have margins positive for cancer. This leads to increased rates of reoperation which are quoted to be as high as 30% and increased local recurrences.

There is an over expression of folate receptors located on the surface of many human carcinoma nodules.Specifically for breast cancer up to 33% of all breast cancers over express the folate receptor.

Folate-fluorescein isothiocyanate, or folate-FITC, also identified as EC-17, targets folate receptors over expressed in certain cancers such as breast cancer, and could help in better identifying the margins of the cancer thereby achieving negative margins.