LumaMed Announces Breast Cancer Imaging Collaboration

ATLANTA, GA and BOSTON, MA--(Marketwired - Oct 29, 2014) - Today, LumaMed and the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMass Medical School) announce a joint clinical study using LumaMed's LumaScan imaging platform. LumaScan is designed to help surgeons visualize cancerous tissue on the margins of excised solid tumors during breast cancer surgery.

The planned study builds on previous work conducted at the UMass Medical School and ongoing studies in Wisconsin with the goal of commercializing technology developed by the Wellman Center for Photonics at Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General) and licensed to LumaMed.

"Using the technology developed at Mass General and clinically evaluated at UMass Medical School, LumaMed has developed two prototypes of a device that have the potential to help surgeons visualize the margins of breast and other cancers during surgery," said LumaMed CEO Mark Samuels. "We believe our LumaScan platform offers the promise of helping surgeons save the lives of men and women affected not just by breast cancer, but by the many types of solid tumors surgically removed today."

"We have used this technology in the past to differentiate benign and cancerous breast tissue, and I think this form of imaging has great potential for intra-operative evaluation of resection margins during breast conserving surgery for cancer," said Ashraf Khan, MD, professor of pathology and director of surgical pathology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and principal investigator on the study.

LumaMed has received two grants from the National Cancer Institute and investments from private investors. Potential benefits for cancer patients include the possibility of preventing multiple surgeries and the traumas that can accompany them. Cancer margin delineation is especially critical in instances where tissue preservation is important, such as breast, skin, head and neck, prostate and brain surgeries.

About LumaMed, LLC.
LumaMed's initial device, the LumaScan I, is a physician-interpreted tabletop inverted microscope. It is designed to hold a proprietary disposable tray and provides a clear view of the outer surface of excised tissue in the operating room, providing an aid to margin visualization prior to definitive histopathology. Future LumaScan products may include imaging devices for in vivo use as well as products with algorithms needed for cancer identification that suggest the cancer margins for the surgeon prior to excision.

LumaMed products are not presently available for sale and are not intended to replace conventional histopathology for definitive analysis.

About the University of Massachusetts Medical School
The University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), one of five campuses of the University system, comprises the School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Graduate School of Nursing, a thriving research enterprise and an innovative public service initiative, Commonwealth Medicine. Its mission is to advance the health of the people of the commonwealth through pioneering education, research, public service and health care delivery with its clinical partner, UMass Memorial Health Care. In doing so, it has built a reputation as a world-class research institution and as a leader in primary care education. The Medical School attracts more than $240 million annually in research funding, placing it among the top 50 medical schools in the nation. In 2006, UMMS's Craig C. Mello, PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the Blais University Chair in Molecular Medicine, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with colleague Andrew Z. Fire, PhD, of Stanford University, for their discoveries related to RNA interference (RNAi).