Veran Medical
Jan 08, 2014
ST. LOUIS, MO – January 8, 2014 – Veran Medical Technologies, the electromagnetic navigation experts, announces its plan to support hospital efforts in building the infrastructure necessary to handle the flood of new patients who will be covered by insurance for lung cancer screening. On December 30, 2013, The U.S. Preventive Task Force (USPSTF) issued its final recommendation approving CT screening for those at high risk for lung cancer. The recommendation sets the stage for both public and private insurance coverage and is expected to bring about a dramatic increase in lung cancer survival.
Veran’s ig4™ platform is an electromagnetic navigation system that allows physicians to biopsy solitary pulmonary nodules for the potential early diagnosis of lung cancer. Only Veran offers EM navigation technology that can help both lung specialists and radiologists reach suspicious nodules in the periphery of the lung.
The USPSTF’s high-risk populations include current and former smokers, ages 55-80 years, who have significant cumulative tobacco smoke exposure and have smoked within the last 15 years. Lung cancer causes more deaths in men and women than colon, breast and prostate cancer combined1. If lung cancer is diagnosed at Stage III or IV, the five-year survival rate is only 15%2. With early detection, there is an 88% survival rate at ten years and a 92% survival rate with the immediate removal of the lesion3. Prior to the recent development of electromagnetic navigation, as recommended for use in ACCP guidelines, only 16% of lung cancer patients have been diagnosed at an early, localized stage3.
“We are excited about the USPSTF’s announcement that will result in saving lives through early diagnosis, in which Veran’s electromagnetic navigation technology plays an essential role,” said Rob Powers, Vice President of Marketing at Veran. “This influx in patients will drive the need to efficiently diagnose lung cancer. Today patients face a complex and often frustrating process that can require multiple visits and increased costs. Veran’s technology not only offers the most advanced bronchoscopy navigation system, but we also offer needle or percutaneous navigation. We recently launched www.riskforcancer.com as a part of our detailed plan to help hospitals with patient flow. Veran also partners with organizations such as the Lung Cancer Alliance to ensure the most comprehensive lung cancer screening for our hospitals. We believe that no other company can impact a lung program like Veran; it is a very exciting time for us!”
“Today the tide has turned in our battle against lung cancer,” said Laurie Fenton Ambrose, President and CEO of Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA), a national organization long recognized for its efforts to bring the benefit of responsible screening to those at risk. “We can and will save tens of thousands of lives. We can and will continue to ensure adherence to the proven best practices to guide the screening, diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. We can and will use this to accelerate research into all aspects of lung cancer,” she said.
Veran’s ig4™ system offers a customized navigation solution to hospitals focused on the early detection of cancer. Over 40 hospitals in the U.S. alone have already purchased a system from Veran, which set new sales records in each quarter of 2013.
Veran is a privately held medical device company headquartered in St. Louis, MO. The company’s mission is to empower physicians to diagnose cancer earlier and to enable precision therapy to save lives. In the United States, lung cancer kills more people each year than breast, prostate, pancreatic and colon cancers combined.
Veran has developed and commercialized an FDA cleared, next generation electromagnetic thoracic navigation platform called the SPiN Thoracic Navigation System®. Veran’s breakthrough technology has been adopted by leading cancer centers throughout the United States. Veran provides physicians with a full line of bronchoscopic brushes, needles, forceps and steerable catheters with tiny electromagnetic sensors embedded in the tips for precise navigation. The combination of these proprietary Always-On Tip Tracked® instruments and Veran’s exclusive patient respiratory gating technology enables physicians to accurately access lung nodules by accounting for nodule movement during patient breathing, a common challenge for lung specialists.
Another challenge lung specialists face is that approximately 40% of lung nodules lie outside of an airway, making them very difficult to reach endobronchially, and traditionally requiring an additional procedure. Veran’s SPiN Thoracic Navigation System® is the first and only FDA cleared technology that enables Pulmonologists or Thoracic Surgeons to safely and accurately access lung nodules outside of an airway using SPiN Perc®, a navigated transthoracic needle. With SPiN Perc®, Veran combines endobronchial navigation with percutaneous navigation, allowing physicians to access all lung nodules in a single procedure, regardless of nodule size or location. This eliminates the cost and risk of unnecessary procedures and empowers physicians to provide a same day diagnosis for their patients. The early diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer has been proven to save lives.
American College of Chest Physicians www.chestnet.org/lungcancer.
The International Early Lung Cancer Action Program Investigators. Survival of patients with stage I lung cancer detected on CT screening. The New England Journal of Medicine 2006; 355:1763-1771.
Ries L, Eisner M, Kosary C, et al. SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975-2003, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda MD, http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2003/.