March 16, 2017 — Exact Imaging has received Health Canada approval and the corresponding medical device license (#98667) to sell its ExactVu high resolution micro-ultrasound biopsy system in Canada. The first device was sold to Gregory Czarnota, M.D., and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto.
"The unmatched resolution of the ExactVu micro-ultrasound system will provide important capabilities to our urologists in helping them actually visualize and distinguish suspicious tissue — and therefore allows us to actually target our prostate biopsies," said Czarnota, director of the Odette Cancer Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute and Radiation Oncologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. "Furthermore, the ExactVu's high resolution imaging also generates rich RF (or radiofrequency) data which our research teams can evaluate and correlate with pathology to apply against our models to better understand apoptosis and how cancerous cells respond to therapy. We see very exciting potential in the ExactVu system and look forward to our collaboration with the team at Exact Imaging."
Czarnota discovered that high-frequency ultrasound could be used to detect apoptosis or cell death. This finding has since been applied to important questions in oncology and organ transplantation. Czarnota's research group is investigating a number of spectroscopic parameters for characterizing tumors and tumor responses to chemotherapy and radiation therapy at high frequencies and intends to use the ExactVu for such purposes. Specific applications include developing methods to generate color-coded ultrasound parametric maps to aid in assessing tumor responses to therapy. Since these spectroscopic signals are potentially linked to nuclear structure and chromatin structure that differs between normal and neoplastic tissue, there is potential to develop our spectroscopic methods not only into a method to track tumor responses but a potentially important diagnostic tool.
For more information: www.exactimaging.com
