A study looking at a way of finding very small breast cancers and sentinel lymph nodes (MagSNOLL)
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Status:
Phase:
This study looked at using a magnetic substance to show up very small tumours in the breast and sentinel lymph nodes.
The sentinel lymph nodes are the first 
that a cancer may spread to. For people with breast cancer, the sentinel nodes are in the armpit.
This study was open for people to join between 2013 and 2014. The team published the results in 2015.
More about this trial
People with breast cancer often have a sentinel lymph node biopsy. The doctor injects a small amount of mildly radioactive liquid (a tracer) and a blue dye into the area where the cancer is. They then use a small radioactive monitor to see when the tracer reaches the sentinel node.
In this study they were looking at a device called a magnetometer. This can detect a magnetic tracer injected into the breast. They wanted to find out if it is possible to use a single injection of magnetic tracer to see the cancer and sentinel nodes.
First they wanted to do a feasibility study to see if it would be possible to do larger trial. This study was for people who had breast cancer that showed up on an ultrasound scan. And who were suitable for a sentinel node biopsy.
24 hours before surgery, everybody had an injection of:
- the magnetic tracer
- the radioactive tracer
- blue dye
The main aim of the study was to see if the magnetic tracer is as good as the usual method of finding the breast cancer and sentinel nodes.
Summary of results
As part of our editorial policy, any trial information we write is checked externally before we put it on our website. The research team have published some results for this trial. But we have been unable to find anyone involved with the trial to check the summary for us.
This means we are not able to include a plain English summary of the results on this page.
More information
There is more information about this study in the link to the medical journal below.
Please note, the information we link to here is not in plain English. It has been written for healthcare professionals and researchers.
Magnetic sentinel node and occult lesion localization in breast cancer (MagSNOLL Trial)
M Ahmed and others
British Journal of Surgery, 2015. Volume 102, issue 6, pages 646 – 652.
Recruitment start:
Recruitment end:
How to join a clinical trial
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Chief Investigator
Professor Michael Douek
Supported by
Endomagnetics Ltd
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
King's College London
NIHR Clinical Research Network: Cancer
If you have questions about the trial please contact our cancer information nurses
Freephone 0808 800 4040
