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Gus Iversen, Editor in Chief | July 07, 2026
From left, Andreja Radevic, Denise Garcia, MD, and Kyrionna Golliday review imaging of a breast tumor in the operating room. (photo by Michael Topf)
Vanderbilt Health has expanded its use of intraoperative PET/CT imaging to breast cancer surgery, marking what the health system says is the first use of the technology in the United States for this application.
The procedure builds on a protocol introduced in 2025 for head and neck cancer surgery. That earlier work, led by Dr. Michael Topf, associate professor of otolaryngology – head and neck surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, used intraoperative PET/CT imaging to assess whether tumors had been completely removed during surgery.
The breast cancer procedure was led by Dr. Denise Garcia, assistant professor of surgery in the division of surgical oncology and endocrine surgery.
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During the operation, the patient receives a radioactive imaging agent that highlights cancerous tissue. After the tumor is removed, surgeons place the specimen into the Aura 10, a mobile PET/CT scanner developed by Belgium-based Xeos. The system generates images in the operating room, allowing surgeons to evaluate tumor margins without sending the specimen to the pathology laboratory.
According to Vanderbilt, the approach can reduce the time needed to assess surgical margins from several days to a matter of minutes. If imaging indicates cancer remains, surgeons can continue the operation immediately rather than scheduling a second procedure after pathology results become available.
"Our team is proud to apply it to a type of tumor that has not yet been imaged for the purposes of assessing margin status," Garcia said in a statement. "As our institution expands treatment methodologies to more types of cancer, we can cure more patients and give them peace of mind that their surgery has been completed with precision."
Vanderbilt also said the protocol allows patients to receive the radioactive imaging agent on the day of surgery rather than beforehand, resulting in a lower radiation dose than previous workflows.
The health system did not provide clinical outcome data or comparative performance results for the technology. Further study will be needed to determine whether intraoperative PET/CT imaging improves surgical outcomes or reduces reoperation rates in breast cancer patients.
