A novel radioguided surgery technique exploiting beta- decay

Radio-guided surgery (RGS) is a technique that helps the surgeon to perform a complete lesion resection. Currently, RGS uses γ emitting tracers, to mark the cancerous tissue from the healthy organs, and a γ radiation detection probe. To overcome the limitations due to the high penetration of γ radiation, a novel approach based on β-radiation has been developed (Sci Rep. 2014;4:4401), allowing to include cases with high uptake of nearby healthy organs, and to benefit of a low medical team exposure