Sydney first trial of ‘Magseed’ breast cancer procedure

Hook wire treatment is confronting, invasive and often traumatic. But a new trial at Sydney’s The Royal Hospital for Women could be a game-changer for breast cancer patients.

Violinist Emma Jezek’s breast cancer diagnosis came with scores of uncomfortable and violating medical procedures – but one she wasn’t prepared for was the little-known ‘hook wire’.

The fit and healthy 51-year-old was quickly and brutally pulled from her life in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra into the unknown of cancer treatment after a GP check up found a lump in her breast last year.

Like most breast cancer patients, she had never heard of a hook wire – a procedure where a radiologist inserts wires into cancerous tissue to make it easy for the surgeon to identify later during a lumpectomy.

Emma was shocked and distressed to see bloody wires jutting out from her breasts.

“There was blood dripping down and it took a long time to get the wires in,” she said.

Emma Jezek and her 11 year old daughter Lila. Picture: Tim Hunter.

“It was really uncomfortable, intrusive and horrible, on top of everything you are already going through. One of the nurses said she hadn‘t seen so many wires, and it made me think ‘what is wrong with me’?”

Emma had four wires in total, two in each breast.

Hook wire breast cancer treatment.

Now a Sydney-first trial at the Royal Hospital for Women at Randwick aims to do away with these uncomfortable and often traumatic hook wire procedures with new “Magseed” technology.

Instead of a long wire left protruding while a woman waits for surgery, a tiny, magnetic seed is injected via a needle, which is far less intrusive for patients, and more accurate for surgeons.

“It was better to have these wires than to have a mastectomy, but this new technology will be much more comfortable in what is a terrible time,” Ms Jezek said.

“I had to have a lot of biopsies and one of them … you lie on your side and they clamp your breast and stick a needle in. Given I had just gone through all of that, it would have been nice to not have had the wires as well.”

Magseed is far less invasive.

Emma’s surgeon Dr Sarah Forsyth is spearheading the trial, with hopes the new procedure will not only remove a layer of trauma for the patient, but also improve surgery times at always stretched public hospitals.

Instead of having to come in for the wire procedure the morning of the surgery, the Magseed can be inserted by a radiologist up to a month ahead, meaning more surgery time for Dr Forsyth.

“It’s much easier than the fiddly hook wire. It reduces surgery time and hopefully makes our surgery more accurate,” she said.

“One of the big things in our public health sector when we use hook wires is there are often delays to our operating list. If we have a list full of patients needing hook wires I can’t start until the radiologist has done the procedures – that’s two hours of surgery time that we are losing.”

Funding for the trial, which kicks off next month, comes from the Royal Hospital for Women Foundation.

There is a huge price difference between procedure – just $35 per hook wire compared to $500 for the Magseed – but Dr Forsyth hopes the trial will show the patient outcomes and the money saved by clearing backlogs in surgeries will inspire other hospitals to offer the technology in the future.