The Mayo Clinic has signed an exclusive license and commercialization agreement with Gamma Medica-Ideas, Inc., (GMI) of Northridge, CA. The company, a developer of digital molecular imaging systems, plans to further develop and commercialize a suite of technologies invented by a team of Mayo physicians and scientists headed by Michael O’Connor, PhD, a nuclear physicist in the department of radiology. The license also includes methods and devices developed at Mayo for combining next generation x-ray tomosynthesis techniques with molecular imaging of the breast. In initial clinical studies, the Mayo algorithms licensed to GMI yield better images at lower dose. The company aims to utilize the licensed technology in conjunction with its Lumagem molecular breast imaging (MBI) system to improve the diagnosis of cancers in the estimated 30% of women who have dense breast tissue, which can impede the diagnosis of abnormalities using existing mammography and other screening techniques. Mammography works well in fatty breast tissue, but in dense breast tissue “mammography is like looking through a frosted-glass pane,” O’Connor says. Mayo research shows MBI to be three times more effective than mammography at finding tumors in dense breast tissue.
While mammography uses low-energy X-rays, MBI relies on high-energy gamma radiation and the behavior of cancer molecules. Although similar gamma-camera approaches have been pursued, Mayo’s breakthrough is lowering the radiation dose needed for MBI to detect small tumors. From a patient’s perspective, MBI is similar to a mammogram. The breast is compressed, although with two-thirds less pressure than a mammogram, and two images are taken of each breast. However, in MBI, a radioisotope (Tc-99m) is injected in the patient’s arm beforehand. Breast-tumor cells absorb this tracer like a sponge and appear as bright spots on MBI films. O’Connor’s innovation was to build a dual-headed system with cameras positioned on either side of the breast, so that each camera would need to image only half the breast. “We found we could increase our ability to detect tumors by about 10 or 15%,” he says. MBI also can improve treatment once women are diagnosed with breast cancer. Because MBI can detect changes in tumor size, “you could rapidly reassess your drug regimen,” says Deborah Rhodes, MD, a preventive medicine specialist at Mayo who helped develop the technology. MBI also addresses the issue of breast cancer recurrence. Among Mayo study participants who had breast cancer, MBI detected a second tumor in a patient’s breast in about 10% of cases.
Sources: Silicon Valley Nano News and Mayo Clinic