Sonocine, Inc. Partners with Breast Imaging Centers to Offer Discounted Automated Whole Breast Ultrasound Screening for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

RENO, Nev.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sonocine, Inc., the leading manufacturer of Automated Whole Breast Ultrasound (AWBU) screening systems announced today that in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the company is partnering with breast imaging centers across the U.S. to offer SonoCiné AWBU screening examinations at a substantially reduced rate to women with dense breasts. SonoCiné is the only Automated Breast Ultrasound System that has published peer reviewed clinical studies.

“Breast Cancer Awareness Month is about letting women know the importance of finding breast cancer early, when it is small and easy to treat,” commented Karsten Damgaard-Iversen, CEO of Sonocine, Inc. “These partnerships are helping women, who have dense breast tissue, gain access to this important examination. All women and doctors need to be educated about the insidious nature of breast density and the fact that the SonoCiné examination finds what mammography does not.”

During the month of October, the following breast imaging centers are partnering with Sonocine, Inc., to offer discounted SonoCiné exams. Some of these centers will be extending this offer through December; call for more details:

• Arizona Breastnet, 8896 E. Becker Lane, Suite 101, Scottsdale, Arizona 85260, Tel: [phone]
• The Breast Care Center at St. Luke’s Hospital, St. Luke’s East Medical Building, Suite 200, 232 South Woods Mill Road, Chesterfield, Missouri 63017, Tel: [phone]
• Davis Hospital & Medical Center, Robert Bitner Building, 2132 North 1700 West, Suite B-100, Layton, Utah 84041, Tel: [phone]
• Hall Health & Longevity Center, 916 Main Street, Venice, California 90291, Tel: [phone]
• Intermountain McKay Dee Hospital, 4401 Harrison Blvd., Ogden, Utah 84403, Tel: [phone]
• Renown Breast Health Center, 901 East 2^nd Street, Reno, Nevada 89502, Tel: [phone]
• SimonMed Imaging, Scottsdale Mountain View, 9201 E. Mountain View Road, Suite 137, Scottsdale, Arizona 85258, Tel: [phone]
• Sonnenalp Breast Diagnostic Imaging Center, 322 Beard Creek Road, Edwards, Colorado 81632, Tel: [phone]

Dr. Belinda Barclay-White, radiologist and founder of Arizona Breastnet, commented: “We have been offering SonoCiné to our patients for the past two years and have found significantly more, lower grade and smaller cancers than we did with mammography alone. I am delighted to help increase awareness of this important procedure in my community by offering the SonoCiné exam to first time Breastnet patients at a reduced rate.”

The SonoCiné Automated Whole Breast Ultrasound (AWBU) system was cleared by the FDA in Oct. 2008 as an adjunct to mammography, but not a replacement for screening mammography.

The high cancer detection performance and the low false positive rate of the SonoCiné AWBU screening procedure has been validated in more than 18,000 breast examinations, as well as in a blinded, prospective, multi-center study published in the peer reviewed medical journal - European Radiology. In this screening trial, 6,425 examinations were performed, resulting in the detection of twice as many cancers as were detected with mammography alone, and three times as many 5-10mm (2/10”-4/10”) cancers.

The excellent specificity of SonoCiné AWBU was also confirmed in the trial by a high (38%) Positive Predictive Value (PPV) of the resulting biopsies, similar to published PPV results obtained with digital mammography.

With more than 190,000 invasive breast cancers diagnosed annually in the U.S., and a mortality rate remaining stable at around 40,000 per year, breast cancer is a leading cause of illness and death in women. While mammography reduces breast cancer mortality, it fails to provide a satisfactory level of early cancer detection in women with dense breast tissue because many cancers are mammographically occult, and others are found later and larger than they could have been found with ultrasound.

To find out more about SonoCiné Automated Whole Breast Ultrasound screening, please visit www.sonocine.com. For more information about the facilities participating in the SonoCiné Breast Cancer Awareness Month offering, you may contact them directly.

About SonoCiné AWBU and Sonocine, Inc:

The SonoCiné AWBU system was invented and engineered specifically to increase the performance of ultrasound breast imaging in order to maximize early detection of mammographically occult cancers in women with dense breast tissue.

Unlike mammography, the SonoCiné procedure requires no breast compression or radiation. Unlike MRI, it does not require a contrast agent. The SonoCiné procedure uses sound waves to discover cancers, which are frequently obscured by dense breast tissue on screening mammograms.

The high cancer detection performance of SonoCiné AWBU is the result of a number of important system characteristics. These include separating the image data collection from the radiologist’s review; automating and computer-controlling the screening of the entire breast and axillary lymph nodes; and maximizing lesion visualization and delectability using the company’s proprietary “dynamic review” software. The pain-free procedure is fully documented, quality-controlled and risk free. The SonoCiné scanning and review system can be interfaced and used in combination with all state-of-the-art diagnostic ultrasound imaging systems.

Based in Reno, NV, Sonocine, Inc., www.sonocine.com, is a privately owned research, development and manufacturing company with focus on early breast cancer detection.