Ductoscopy Procedure Video

Air date: November 14, 2010

For more information: Cancer Services

Transcript

Angele Ringo, Channel 10 News Anchor: A local breast cancer survivor is telling 10News about a procedure that she credits with saving her life. It's a breakthrough breast cancer test that can detect what traditional screenings miss. 10News reporter Jennifer Jensen explains the one symptom you should tell your doctor about.

Jennifer Jensen, Channel 10 Reporter: 62-year-old Lucia Henao has a family history of cancer. That's why she's on top of her yearly mammograms, even regular monthly breast self-exams, but grew increasingly concerned when she noticed an abnormality.

Lucia Henao: I had a mammogram, it was clean, and about two weeks later, it started to leak.

Jennifer: Leak blood through her nipples, in very small amounts, but a concern nonetheless.

Dr. Julie Barone, Surgical Oncologist Affiliated with Sharp Memorial Outpatient Pavilion: The most common cause of bloody nipple discharge is papilloma. They are benign breast growths but they are very, very small and sometimes they don't show up on an ultrasound or a mammogram.

Jennifer: So Dr. Barone recommended that Henao undergo a procedure called a ductoscopy at Sharp Memorial Outpatient Pavilion, a diagnostic and therapeutic procedure that looks at the ducts inside the breast and can spot malignant growths at microscopic levels.

Lucia: Never. It was my first knowledge of that. I had no idea what it was.

Dr. Barone: It's a sometimes .7 millimeter to .9 millimeter camera that's very, very tiny, and it actually gets inserted into the duct that has the discharge.

Jennifer: Dr. Barone says by using the tiny scope, the image that is seen on the monitor is magnified 60 times, so she is able to see the abnormality or papilloma quite well.

Dr. Barone: This is a picture of a very diseased duct right here.

Jennifer: During this recent surgery, involving another patient of Dr. Barone's, she detected a blockage inside the walls of the duct.

Dr. Barone: Normally the walls are very smooth and white and here we see very irregular walls. Some blood. That's not normal.

Jennifer: By using the ductoscope, Dr. Barone can then remove some of the diseased tissue for further testing, and in some cases find cancer. Such was the case for Lucia Henao.

Dr. Barone has performed about 50 ductoscopy procedures in the past two years and says about 6 percent of the cases have actually ended up being cancer, which is why it's a test that she believes should be performed more often.

Dr. Barone: Don't ignore it. Early detection is the key to the success in cancer, breast cancer treatment, and so this is an early detection tool that we can use.

Lucia: These little cells were microscopic. The mammogram couldn't find it. The ultrasound couldn't find it. Nothing.

Jennifer: But the ductoscopy did. And after six weeks of radiation, Lucia said she is cancer-free.

Lucia: If they hadn't had discovered that at that stage, probably now I would be like stage 3 or 4. That saved my life.

Jennifer: From Serra Mesa, Jennifer Jensen, 10News.