The Swedish IT and medical-technology company Sectra, together with clinical and industrial partners, has been awarded EUR 3.6 million to combat breast cancer through a research project for high-resolution, low-dose X-ray imaging. Sectra will lead the project, which involves six European countries.
The project comprises development of novel imaging methods based on Sectra´s photoncounting detector technology, which provides the unmatched lowest radiation dose on the market. The objective is to improve early detection and diagnosis of breast cancer and clinical evaluation of the new methods.
The project was selected in intense competition based on the advice from some of the most distinguished researchers in Europe in this area. In the European Union (EU), breast cancer of all cancers is the most common cause of death for women below seventy years of age and this is one of the largest grants of this type ever awarded by the EU in its efforts to combat breast cancer.
The project is designated “High-Resolution X-ray Imaging for Improved Detection and Diagnosis of Breast Cancer” (HighReX) and will be part of the Sixth EU Framework Program for Research and Technological Development (FP6). Experienced mammography physicians from several European breast-imaging centers are involved in the project to test and evaluate the imaging techniques developed in the project and compare them to existing methods.
In mammography screening operations, low radiation dose is an important factor since healthy women are examined on a relatively frequent number of occasions on a recurring basis. The EU strongly supports the ALARA principle. ALARA is an acronym for As Low As Reasonably Achievable. This is a radiation safety principle for minimizing radiation doses and releases of radioactive materials by employing all reasonable methods. ALARA is not only a sound safety principle but is a regulatory requirement for all radiation safety programs.
Sectra’s photon-counting detector technology is commercially available through Sectra MicroDose Mammography, a digital mammography system that produce excellent images with the decidedly lowest radiation dose of all systems on the market. Within the HighReX project, Sectra will develop and evaluate novel methods for breast cancer detection and diagnosis, such as 3D/tomosynthesis, dual-energy and contrast mammography. Providing low-dose images with significantly increased
contrast and spatial resolution, Sectra’s detector technology is a perfect start for developing these methods.
“Sectra is the only European company that has developed a commercially available detector technology for digital mammography. The new project will utilize our photon-counting technology as a platform for tomorrow’s methods of detecting breast cancer,” says Mats Danielsson at the Sectra Mammography Division in Stockholm.
Dr. Torbjörn Kronander, President Sectra Imtec AB,
+46 13 23 52 27
Dr. Jan-Olof Brüer, CEO and President, Sectra AB, +46 13 23 52 09
For more information about the HighRex project, please visit
www.highrex.eu
Download this press release in Acrobat 5 Portable Document Format, PDF, nice for printing:
E-mail: info/d/press/a/sectra/d/se