SAN ANTONIO, Dec. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Naviscan PET Systems(R), a privately held company specializing in high resolution PET scanners, announced today at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium -- new clinical data from a study using the PEM Flex scanner in breast cancer management.
PEM Flex(TM) Solo II is a commercially available, FDA cleared high resolution PET scanner designed to image small body parts such as the breast and hand. Solo II utilizes PET technology for the breast application known as positron emission mammography or PEM which allows physicians to visualize and characterize lesions as small as two millimeters in size.
Kathy Schilling, MD and medical director of Breast Imaging and Intervention at the Center for Breast Care at the Boca Raton Community Hospital in Florida presented data from their study involving 90 breast cancer patients, comparing the effectiveness and accuracy of breast imaging with PEM, MRI and WB PET/CT for pre-operative surgical planning.
"PEM's high resolution imaging is right in the range of ductal size which is where cancer typically originates. We were pleased to find PEM demonstrated 93% sensitivity with ductal carcinoma in-situ cases and PEM also proved to be as sensitive as MRI in detecting invasive and non-invasive primary breast lesions," said Dr. Schilling who has been studying PEM for over a year. "Besides the image quality of PEM and its ability to light up very small lesions, there is an ease of interpretation as you are only looking at some 48 images as opposed to hundreds with MRI."
Dr. Schilling has been using the PEM Flex scanner in her practice as a tool for evaluating additional and unsuspected disease in the breast and compares these findings with that of MRI. She is also a principal investigator in a 400 patient, multi-center clinical trial comparing PEM and MRI in breast cancer patients to be completed in 2008.
About Naviscan PET Systems
Naviscan PET Systems, Inc., founded in 1995, designs and develops compact, high-resolution positron emission tomography (PET) scanners that are intended to provide organ-specific imaging, guide radiological and surgical procedures, and minimally invasive therapy. Naviscan has developed PET scanners utilized in clinical research studies, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, at leading academic institutions. Results of these studies have been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals. The Company is headquartered in San Diego, California.
Naviscan PET Systems, Inc.
