OREANDA-NEWS. As part of its ongoing commitment to accelerating cancer innovation and assembling tools to fight cancer, GE Healthcare (NYSE: GE) will highlight the benefits of GE’s established oncology portfolio for patients across the world at ASCO 2013. During the annual meeting, which brings together the oncology community to focus on “Building Bridges to Conquer Cancer,” GE will feature imaging solutions including SenoBright* Contrast Enhanced Spectral Mammography (CESM) which has the potential to aid in the improvement of outcomes in breast cancer.

SenoBright* Contrast Enhanced Spectral Mammography (CESM)

Launched in 2010, and available worldwide, the innovative SenoBright* Contrast Enhanced Spectral Mammography (CESM) helps expedite the diagnosis of breast cancer using GE’s latest developments in digital mammography. SenoBright uses X-rays at multiple energies to create two separate but nearly simultaneous exposures; which results in images specifically highlighting contrast agent uptake in less than 10 minutes. To date, there are more than a hundred breast cancer facilities equipped with CESM globally with nearly a quarter of them in the USA.

Mammography is the standard in breast cancer screening, delivering proven clinical outcomes. However, the sensitivity and specificity of mammography images can be impacted by a range of factors that are not always visible on regular X-ray, sometimes leading to misdiagnosis. SenoBright helps radiologists localize known or suspected lesions using a unique imaging method that combines digital mammography, low-and high-energy X-rays and a contrast agent used to highlight lesions through contrast visualization.

When an inconclusive mammogram and ultrasound require further testing, scheduling and completing further diagnostic work-up - such as MRI - often creates a circuitous and lengthy path that may increase the patient’s anxiety considerably causing long-term psycho-social negative consequences even if the diagnosis rules out cancer (1). CESM shortens the path to detection, diagnosis and treatment for many patients by up to 30 days, in several ways:

(1) a CESM exam takes only 10 minutes, a little longer than a regular diagnostic mammogram, and uses the same equipment as a routine mammogram, which patients are already familiar with; it is potentially accessible in every center already equipped with a GE Senographe* DS or Essential, more than 6,000 sites worldwide;
(2) the CESM technology helps localize lesions while hiding healthy tissue, thus clarifying ambiguity of initial images;
(3) unlike MRI, CESM is not confounded by hormone replacement or menstrual cycles, so CESM can be scheduled immediately with results available within minutes, even on patients with metallic implant and pace-makers; and
(4) compared to MRI, CESM does not cause as much discomfort and is four times faster. The exam is simple: after an intravenous injection of contrast agent (similar to MRI), the patient receives a mammogram using CESM technology, which analyzes blood flow patterns within the breast tissue to help localize a known or suspected lesion.

Even if further exams are needed after CESM procedures, the time to provide a diagnosis and treatment plan to the patient can be significantly shortened.

“The insights gained through SenoBright aides physicians in diagnosis and treatment. More importantly it can improve patient experience by reducing turnaround time and the necessity of more invasive procedures. Over 5,000 patients globally have been imaged with SenoBright to date. This can result in less burden on the patient, more clinical confidence in disease classifications and has lowered the need for further interventional biopsies,” said Prahlad Singh, General Manager, Women’s Health, GE Healthcare - Detection & Guidance Solutions.

Singh added: “Since 1965, GE Healthcare has made significant progress in providing solutions for breast cancer detection and diagnosis that really bring a change into people’s lives and has committed to invest USD 1 billion in oncology R&D by 2016 to bring new products into the market.”

In the United States, the Pink Lotus Breast Center (pinklotusbreastcenter.com), a comprehensive and integrative breast center exclusively dedicated to the prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer unveiled in May 2012, uses GE Healthcare’s Contrast Enhanced Spectral Mammography technology at its flagship breast center in Los Angeles. CESM is provided at the facility's Sheryl Crow Imaging Center - the first facility in the country to make this new advancement available to patients.

“At GE Healthcare there is a huge sense of pride as our company, through our diverse portfolio offerings, helps touch many people and save many lives. Within our Women’s Health division our goal is to continue investing in R&D in order to provide innovative solutions that will better enable clinicians to diagnose diseases earlier thereby helping patients and their families. Our #GetFIT campaigns also aim to educate employees and the general public on healthy living as we believe prevention is half the battle,” concluded Singh.

GE also launched a USD 100 million Open Innovation Challenge globally to find and fund ideas to accelerate the detection of breast cancer.