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News Release

Tedra White

ProMedica
419-291-2330
tedra.white@promedica.org

Area Breast Care Center Introduces One of the Industry's Most Advanced Molecular Breast Imaging Systems

posted on: 11/28/2011

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The LumaGEM™ MBI System

The only system of its kind in Ohio



TOLEDO, Ohio, June 17, 2011 – One of the most advanced tools on the market for Molecular Breast Imaging (MBI) used to detect breast cancer is now available at ProMedica Toledo Hospital Breast Care Center (BCC), located at 2121 Hughes Drive. The LumaGEM™ MBI System is the industry’s first commercially available, dual head digital imaging system. It is approved by the Food and Drug Administration to identify tumors in dense breast tissue that can be missed by digital mammography. According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 40 percent of all women have dense or thick breast tissue with the largest population being under the age of 50.

While Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is cutting-edge technology, LumaGEM MBI is a new option for patients who cannot have an MRI, as well as women with complex breast tissue. Patients report that a LumaGEM MBI scan is quick, easy and virtually painless. With the dual head configuration, LumaGEM can speed up the exam time as compared to its single head MBI competitors and requires less radiation.

In a traditional mammogram, X-ray technology is used to pinpoint breast tumors. In patients with dense breasts, tumors and breast tissue both appear white on an X-ray, which can make them difficult to distinguish. LumaGEM MBI technology is not X-ray based. It uses new technology called cadmium zinc telluride which provides higher quality images that are easier to interpret.

“This remarkable, new technology is going to save many lives by helping radiologists spot cancer in women who would have likely been diagnosed in much later stages of breast cancer,” says Robin Shermis, MD, BCC medical director. “While digital mammography and MRI are quite effective screening tools for many, MBI is a more effective option for women with complex-dense mammograms who do not qualify for or who cannot tolerate MRI.”

How MBI technology works
First, a small dose of radiotracer material is injected into the patient, and within just 10 minutes the scan can begin. The substance locates and magnifies tumor cells as “hot spots”. The breast is lightly compressed between two digital gamma cameras, using far less pressure than a mammography exam.

Each breast scan takes only minutes and the entire procedure can be completed in approximately 45 minutes. The images are immediately available for the physician’s interpretation. LumaGEM MBI provides enhanced clarity and helps define the size and extent of an abnormality at a very early stage.

Both researchers and clinicians from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. have been instrumental in the development and utilization of the LumaGEM MBI System. In a recently published study in the January 2011 issue of Radiology, a monthly journal devoted to clinical radiology and allied sciences, the LumaGEM MBI System has been clinically proven to be an effective secondary diagnostic screening tool for breast imaging in women with mammographically dense breasts. MBI effectively demonstrated superior sensitivity (91% when combined with mammography) and specificity (93%) results over mammography in 1,000 patients.

About the makers of LumaGEM™ MBI
Gamma Medica, Inc. (www.gammamedica.com) builds and services imaging systems based on novel technologies to improve patient health through early diagnosis of disease, improved patient treatment and by enabling new drug discovery. Gamma Medica is dedicated to leading medical imaging into a new digital era with its unique sensor readout systems.

About ProMedica Toledo Hospital Breast Care Center
The BCC is recognized as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiology for meeting the highest standards of the radiology profession and achieving accreditation in mammography, breast ultrasound, ultrasound-guided biopsy and stereotactic breast biopsy. The BCC supports all ProMedica breast imaging within the Toledo metro area.

For more information about MBI and other services offered at the center, visit www.promedica.org or call 419-291-2131.

 

ProMedica Toledo Hospital is a member of ProMedica, a mission-based organization that is ranked the No. 2 most integrated health system in the U.S. ProMedica was formed in 1986 and is a Toledo, Ohio-based, not-for-profit healthcare organization with nearly 14,000 employees; 3,000 physicians and more than 306 facilities in Ohio and Michigan. ProMedica serves more than 2.73 million patients annually and includes 11 hospitals; ProMedica Continuum Services with senior, hospice, rehabilitation, and integrative services; ProMedica Physicians, a network of more than 315 primary care and specialty physicians; and Paramount Health Care, the largest HMO in northwest Ohio. For more information, please visit http://www.promedica.org/toledochildrens.

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