MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Tuesday, July, 29, 2014- Based on its recent analysis of the breast imaging systems market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Gamma Medica with the 2014 Global Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Leadership. Gamma Medica's LumaGEM Molecular Breast Imaging (MBI) system provides breast images through the digital direct conversion of photons in gamma rays into electronic charges that form the image. It equips clinicians with MBI technology to detect tumors in women with dense breast tissue and plan treatment measures as early as possible.

Gamma Medica has demonstrated its dedication to improving the standard of care for breast cancer patients by offering the advanced cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) solid state detector technology in its LumaGEM MBI system.

"While other adjunct technologies such as ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging are available, either their inability to locate microcalcifications or their low specificity can throw up inconclusive results," said Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Raghuraman Madanagopal. "On the other hand, Gamma Medica's LumaGEM MBI system can efficiently locate lesions as small as 5 millimeters in size and help identify the tumor as benign or cancerous."
The LumaGEM MBI system has the highest negative predictive value (NPV) among adjunct technologies used for breast cancer diagnosis, making it one of the most reliable systems for this purpose. It also has a high intrinsic spatial resolution of 1.6 millimeters and provides high-quality images that enable clinicians to locate tumors, measure them, and understand their functional and metabolic activities.

While there are shortcomings with every adjunct technology that is used for breast cancer diagnosis, the LumaGEM MBI system, with a high sensitivity of 91 percent and a high specificity of 93 percent, offers customers unprecedented precision. The LumaGEM MBI system utilizes a dual-head technology that effectively locates cancers in cases that previously were either inconclusive or determined to be negative on mammography images.

As the imaging is done on the mediolateral oblique and the cranio-caudal planes, it is easily comparable to mammography images. The scanning procedure in the LumaGEM MBI system uses minimal compression and is performed with the subject in a seated position.

"The LumaGEM MBI system has a small-sized gamma camera that is located closer to the breasts," noted Raghuraman Madanagopal. "As a result, the amount of radiation required for obtaining images is less than one-third of the amount used in most breast-specific gamma imaging modalities. Frost & Sullivan research shows that this ability provides Gamma Medica a technological advantage over its competitors."

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