Lung Cancer Management
Jul 11, 2014
ST. LOUIS, MO – July 11, 2014 – Veran Medical Technologies, a U.S. based medical device company, announced today the positive, cost-effective final results for the initial study of its innovative SPiNPerc™ procedure. The SPiNPerc endobronchial percutaneous biopsy study results support the use of a percutaneous approach to biopsy when a traditional bronchoscopic method is not possible. Hospitals, patients and physicians experience positive financial outcomes when more can be accomplished in one procedure. This study demonstrated a hospital savings of $693,327 per 200 lung cancer screening patients with positive findings.1
In addition to the study, a SPiNPerc clinical trial is in process at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. An interim analysis has shown the procedure to be feasible and safe with final data to be published in the near future. Dr. Lonny Yarmus, Clinical Chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care at Johns Hopkins, stated that, “Veran’s SPiNPerc technology gives me the option of an endobronchial and percutaneous approach to detect lung cancer. Many of my patients in the study previously would have needed additional visits to get an answer.”
Rob Powers, Veran’s Global Vice President of Marketing, noted that “ENB has been on the market for nearly 10 years and the five-year survival rate remains an unacceptable 15-16%. We are providing both an advanced ENB system and innovations like SPiNPerc that have the potential to impact survival.” Powers went on to add, “setting up a comprehensive lung cancer screening program is important. The SPiNPerc procedure clearly offers a cost effective new patient care pathway for those patients with a suspicious lesion found on their CT scan.”
The Lung Cancer Management study was written by Dr. K. Adam Lee, Dr. Abhijit A. Raval and Leah Amir. Practice points conclude that “having both navigation bronchoscopy and computed tomography fine-needle aspiration ready on the same platform allows an easy transition from one procedure to the other if the first approach fails.”
Dr. K. Adam Lee, thoracic surgeon and expert in the SPiNPerc procedure, said that, “besides the cost effectiveness of SPiNPerc, Veran’s technology gives me every tool I need to diagnosis and treat my patient in the best way, which demonstrates the practice of good medicine.”
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.
Lung Cancer Management, Lee, Raval, et. al 2014