New life-saving advances in technology benefitting cancer patients at University Hospital Limerick,

IMPROVING cancer patients quality-of-life in Limerick and the Mid-West region is happening, thanks to new and improved health policies and practices being delivered at University Hospital Limerick (UHL). 

That's according to surgeon Mr Chwanrow Baban, who said that thanks to “clinical innovation” taken up in UHL, Limerick patients who need breast cancer services are now benefiting from the introduction of new technology. 

In the last year, the Limerick service has introduced the magseed device for women who need a lump removed from their breast. This magnetic bead, which is approximately the size of a grain of rice, replaces the need to insert a wire to assist surgeons in locating a lump.

Mr Baban, Consultant General and Oncoloplastic Breast Surgeon, UL Hospitals Group and Senior Lecturer in Surgery at the UL School of Medicine, was a keynote speaker at the annual Sylvester O'Halloran conference, one of Ireland’s largest medical conferences.

Speaking of his long standing research interests, Mr Baban said: “Over many years, our work has looked at how we can exploit bacteria for good. 

“We know that the centre of cancer anywhere in the body is deprived of oxygen, and we know too that these are exactly the kinds of places that bacteria like - we have demonstrated in animal experiments that bacteria can be used to target cancers, but of course the challenge is making it a reality for our patients,” Mr Baban explained. 

“Research work is very slow and it can take 20 or 30 years to translate something exciting like this from the benchside to the bedside.”

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Over the course of three days, 500 people attended the annual Sylvester O'Halloran conference which was held at the University of Limerick and UHL.

“In the past,” Mr Baban explained, “when a patient came in with a lump, we needed to attach a wire to remove the cancer area. 

“This was very stressful for women who were required to come into the radiology department, to have a wire inserted and to be advised not to interfere with or lose it, or else the surgeon would not be able to remove the lump. 

“With the magseed, all that stress has now been eliminated. The patient can come in a week, a month or several months before the surgery. And of course, apart from reducing stress there is also a reduced risk of infection and other complications,” Mr Baban said.

“I am glad to work in a service that is innovating for our patients, that is improving quality of life and patient outcomes.”

Sylvester O’Halloran, which the annual conference was named after, was a renowned surgeon/historian born in Limerick early in the 18th century. 

The conference has developed into one of the most anticipated such events in Ireland and, increasingly, internationally, and has been run by Limerick medical professionals since 1992.