TechniScan announces adding another center to worldwide clinical trials for new breast imaging system

SALT LAKE CITY (June 16, 2010) – TechniScan, (OTC BB: TSNI) a medical device company engaged in the development and commercialization of an automated 3D breast ultrasound imaging system, today announced that it has launched a clinical study in Rochester, Minn., its third new clinical site to commence in the last five months.

TechniScan’s Warm Bath Ultrasound (WBU) system is designed to capture three-dimensional images of the breast as a woman lies prone on a table and state-of-the-art ultrasound technology is used in a warm water tank to image the breast anatomy. Its revolutionary new method of imaging produces information and whole breast images that are not available with traditional reflection ultrasound or whole breast ultrasound systems presently on the market.

To date, TechniScan has scanned over 800 women in clinical studies in Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah as well as Orange and San Diego, California. These past clinical studies focused on key factors like image quality, repeatability, and establishing protocols for testing baseline values for positive and negative predictive capabilities of the system.

source: Techniscan

GE Healthcare Collaborates on Investigational Molecular Breast Imaging System for Early Breast Cancer Detection

GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), announced its collaboration in two clinical trials with the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv, Israel and Hamilton Health Sciences Hospital in Ontario, Canada on the use of a novel technology that may assist in assessment and early detection of breast cancer in women who are at high risk for the disease.

GE Healthcare’s investigational Molecular Breast Imaging (MBI) system is a gamma camera dedicated for breast imaging based on accumulation of a radioactive tracer in hypermetabolic cancer cells. The innovation of the MBI technology is the use of imaging detectors, Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT), to replace the standard NaI detectors routinely used for gamma cameras, in a dedicated breast device. Extensive early clinical work done in the Mayo Clinic in the U.S. shows encouraging results with the use of MBI technology.

In these two prospective studies, the diagnostic accuracy of MBI will be determined in patients at high risk for breast cancer, including patients with dense breast tissue in whom conventional modalities used for breast, X-ray mammography and ultrasonography, are suboptimal.

“Breast cancer is a foremost health problem for women worldwide and it is growing in numbers,” said Nathan Hermony, GE Healthcare Nuclear Medicine global manager. “Early detection is critical for improving breast cancer survival rates. This technology is intended to improve early detection in women who are at high risk for developing breast cancer, or in women with dense breasts who are less likely to benefit from conventional mammography.”

source: Newswire Today

GE Healthcare Unveils Innovative Technology in Breast Cancer Imaging; Can Reduce Time from Detection to Diagnosis

PARIS, Jun 01, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- GE Healthcare /quotes/comstock/13*!ge/quotes/nls/ge (GE 16.32, -0.03, -0.18%) , a pioneer in digital mammography, today announced the introduction of an innovative technology to aid in breast cancer diagnosis. GE Healthcare's new SenoBright(1) Contrast Enhanced Spectral Mammography (CESM) technology reduces ambiguity in mammography results, enabling physicians to detect and diagnose cancer with more confidence - even in the densest part of the breast tissue more rapidly and accurately.

Working like the multiple-flash, red-eye reduction function in a digital camera, SenoBright uses X-rays at multiple energies to create two separate exposures. These resulting images specifically illuminate and highlight areas where there is angiogenesis, growth of small blood vessels potentially related to the presence of cancer.

"A CESM exam takes from 5 to 10 minutes," said Dr. Clarisse Dromain, Gustave Roussy Cancer Institute, France. "During my investigation of the use of CESM with my own examinations of patients, I have been able to better define the spread of a cancer compared to standard mammography and ultrasound, and follow-up exams with an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) validated exactly the same results. Moreover, in the majority of cases the confidence in the diagnosis is high enough that the patient can be told the results that same day," she added.

source: MarketWatch