  About 20 percent of patients undergoing breast-conserving surgery require
reoperation due to cancerous tissue remaining inside the breast. Breast cancer
localization systems utilize auditory feedback to convey the distance between a
localization probe and a small marker (seed) implanted into the breast tumor
prior to surgery. However, no information on the location of the tumor margin
is provided. To reduce the reoperation rate by improving the usability and
accuracy of the surgical task, we developed an auditory display using shape
sonification to assist with tumor margin localization. Accuracy and usability
of the interactive shape sonification were determined on models of the female
breast in three user studies with both breast surgeons and non-clinical
participants. The comparative studies showed a significant increase in
usability (p<0.05) and localization accuracy (p<0.001) of the shape
sonification over the auditory feedback currently used in surgery.
