SoftScan clinical results from a breast cancer treatment monitoring study to be presented at IEEE International Conference

Sep 5 2009

ART Advanced Research Technologies Inc. (ART) (TSX:ARA), a Canadian medical device company and a leader in optical molecular imaging products for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, is pleased to announce that Dr. Gregory Czarnota, MD, PhD, Radiation Oncologist at Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, will be presenting SoftScan^® clinical results from a breast cancer treatment monitoring study, at the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society 31st Annual International Conference in Minneapolis, Minn. The study to determine the efficacy of the SoftScan system in monitoring response to treatment of breast cancer, particularly neoadjuvant therapies, was conducted at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, among North America's most important cancer centres, with Dr. Czarnota as the principal investigator.

Mr. Sebastien Gignac, ART's Chairman & CEO said: "These findings further validate the powerful role of the SoftScan optical imaging system in breast cancer research, and for treatment monitoring in particular. There is a pressing need to develop better, more personalized, treatments regimens for breast cancer patients in order to diminish unnecessary suffering as well as to better control escalating chemotherapy costs for the health sector, and we believe that SoftScan can play a useful role in this regard, as the study led by Dr. Czarnota indicates."

Dr. Gregory Czarnota, also Scientist, Sunnybrook Research Institute, who led the study, stated: "Results from the study confirm that 50% to 70% of women with locally advanced breast cancer are not responding well to initial chemotherapy, which suggests there is a strong unmet need for early evaluation in treatment monitoring. Our findings may make it easier and more cost efficient for researchers to develop effective treatments for breast cancer, because SoftScan can characterize tumour responses by their metabolic signatures. I have high hopes for SoftScan because it offers what conventional modalities do not and can potentially lead to better outcomes." Study results have been submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed oncology journal.

With other existing imaging modalities, clinicians must conventionally wait for weeks before being able to determine response to treatment. Consequently, clinicians have had difficulty knowing in a timely fashion if the treatment was having an effect. Aided by the SoftScan imaging system, clinicians are able to non-invasively assess the spread and growth of the tumors in the breast between one and four weeks of starting the treatment regimen. This provides doctors with additional insight into how effective a potential drug or treatment may be and as to whether or not the patient should be switched to a different regimen.

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