Electrical Engineering Research Featured on Public Radio

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El-Shenawee (right) and graduate students Tyler Bowman (left) and Nathan Burford (center) are studying the use of terahertz imaging in breast cancer treatment.

Magda El-Shenawee, professor of electrical engineering, is featured in the most recent episode of The Best Medicine, which will air on KUAF (91.3 FM) at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23. This radio show features "intimate portraits of how ordinary people and their families navigate illness and the often bumpy path back to good health."

The episode, titled "Breast Cancer: Choices for Doctors/Choices for Patients," follows three breast cancer patients through the process of diagnosis and treatments, and it investigates the latest developments to detect and treat the disease.

On the show, El-Shenawee points out that 20 to 40 percent of women who have a lumpectomy to remove a breast cancer tumor end up having a second surgery, because tests determine that some of the cancerous material has been left behind.

El-Shenawee is developing a process that uses terahertz radiation to test tissue from lumpectomies during surgery in order to prevent multiple surgeries. To make sure they have removed all cancerous tissue, medical professionals must examine the margins, or edges, of the removed tissue. Currently, biopsied tissue is examined by a lab after the surgery is completed and the patient has been released. El-Shenawee's system would enable medical professionals to examine removed tissue during the initial operation. If the sample reveals that any of the tumor has been left behind, the surgeon can remove additional tissue immediately, reducing the need for the patient to undergo additional surgeries.