Funding for Breast Laser Imaging Technology
By MedImaging staff writers
Posted on 02 Aug 2006
Seno Medical Instruments, Inc. (San Antonio, TX, USA) is one step closer to moving breakthrough breast cancer diagnostic technology to the global marketplace. The medical device company announced it has received more than U.S.$3 million dollars to launch commercial operations. Posted on 02 Aug 2006
This funding will allow the company to further develop patented laser optoacoustic breast imaging technology for commercial use by clinicians and hospitals worldwide. The target market for the breast cancer diagnostic technology is estimated to be $5.9 billion dollars in North America alone.
Validation of the science has been confirmed repeatedly through studies and more than $12 million in funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI). The NCI recently awarded Seno Medical's development partner, Fairway Medical Technologies, Inc. (Houston, TX, USA), with a $1.1 million grant to expand the technology for prostate cancer applications.
Seno Medical's development partner, Fairway Medical Technologies, has been collaborating with the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston (USA) to further develop its proof-of-concept. The platform technology, which fuses light and ultrasound to create strong contrast between healthy and cancerous tissues, has many potential applications. They include the diagnosis of ovarian, prostate, colorectal, bladder, and melanoma tumors. The technology will also have cardiovascular applications.
Seno's CEO, Janet Campbell said, "More than 1.2 million women and men around the world will be diagnosed with breast cancer according to the World Health Organization. Our technology has the ability to detect cancer in its earliest stages without breast compression or exposure to x-ray. We are tremendously excited about the opportunity to bring this technology to patients everywhere.”
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Fairway Medical Technologies