Company presents data for the en-bloc breast biopsy system at RSNA.

2004 JAN 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Neothermia Corp., an emerging company focused on the development and marketing of minimally invasive systems for the diagnosis of cancer, announced the first clinical presentation of data for its en-bloc breast biopsy system was made at the 89th scientific assembly and annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago, Illinois.

The presentation was made by Larry K. Killebrew, MD, medical director of the Oklahoma Breast Care Center.

Killebrew was one of the first physicians in the United States to adopt Neothermia Corp.'s en-bloc system into his clinical practice after its approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2001.

The paper, entitled "Comparison of the Diagnostic Accuracy of a Percutaneous Intact Specimen Sampling Device to a Core Needle Sampling Device for Biopsy of Breast Cancer: Initial Experience," compares Killebrew's clinical experience with more than 800 en-bloc breast biopsy procedures with more than 800 Mammotome breast biopsy procedures that he conducted in the past.

The results indicate that by using the en-bloc system, physicians are significantly more likely to correctly diagnose patients with the initial biopsy.

"When the Mammotome was introduced almost 10 years ago, it was a major advance in the field of breast biopsy," said Killebrew. "In my opinion, the introduction of the en-bloc is of equal importance. The incision size required to extract the specimen is similar to the Mammotome, and the en-bloc procedure is much more rapid."

He continued: "More importantly, since the en-bloc is more accurate, the medical community can now spare a significant number of women from unnecessary surgical procedures to confirm the severity of their cancer or to confirm a benign diagnosis "