Educational events for physicians who diagnose and treat prostate cancer

Sep 17 2009

iCAD, Inc. (Nasdaq: ICAD), an industry-leading provider of advanced image analysis and workflow solutions for the early identification of cancer, today announces a series of educational events designed for radiologists, urologists, oncologists, radiation oncologists, surgeons, technologists and other referring physicians who diagnose and treat patients with prostate cancer.

Two webinars, entitled “Prostate MRI – A Paradigm Shift in Prostate Cancer Diagnosis and Management” will focus on how MRI combined with an advanced quantitative image analysis software solution, (iCAD’s VividLook™), supports improved prostate cancer management. The course will include clinical case reviews that will demonstrate prostate cancer detection in patients with previously negative prostate biopsy and rising PSA, as well as the use of dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI and Computer-Aided Detection (CAD) to monitor prostate cancer response to radiation therapy. They will be held on:

• Thursday, October 15, 2009, at noon ET, with Dr. François Cornud, Diagnostic and Interventional Radiologist at the Centre d’Imagerie Tourville
• Tuesday, November 10, 2009, at 3 pm ET, with Dr. Russell Low, Medical Director at Sharp and Children’s MRI Center and Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.

To register for these webinars, visit www.icadmed.com/newsevents/webinar.cfm or call 1-866-280-2239 ext. 7943.

In addition, a non-RSNA satellite symposium will be held on Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at 7 am CT at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago, room CC24BC. The session, “How quantitative image analysis CAD and MRI play an integral role in prostate cancer programs including pre-biopsy guidance, treatment planning, active surveillance and therapy response monitoring,” will include presentations by clinical experts, Dr. Cornud and Dr. Low. Specific focus areas include how DCE MRI in conjunction with other MRI imaging techniques can improve the sensitivity and specificity of prostate cancer localization and detection as compared to current imaging practices. Specific case examples will be shared, including how DCE MRI and CAD support improved treatment planning for patients undergoing Cyberknife therapy.

To register for the special focus session, please call iCAD at 1-866-280-2239 ext. 7943.

“The Presidential Proclamation declaring September as Prostate Cancer Awareness Month emphasized prevention as well as the need for better screening tests to ensure early detection,” said Ken Ferry, President and CEO of iCAD. “DCE MRI is an advanced imaging technique and when used in conjunction with a quantitative image analysis software solution like VividLook, it has been proven to show improvements in prostate cancer detection, treatment planning and management. However, at this time, there is not a lot of education available to clinicians who want to start using DCE MRI with CAD. As a leader in this market area, iCAD is working with clinical experts who have years of experience using this protocol to deliver a new educational series, 'Innovations in Imaging.' We believe these seminars will provide other clinicians a better understanding of how this imaging protocol supports better patient care, as well as how to incorporate it into their own practices.”

The American Cancer Society has estimated that in 2009 more than 192,280 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, 27,360 men will die of prostate cancer, and 1 in 6 men will be affected by this disease over their lifetime. Commonly used diagnostic tests have been shown to have high false positive and false negative rates. In addition, transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsies are essentially blind and random and they can miss at least 20 percent of cancer.

“MRI with dynamic contrast enhancement provides a more accurate image of the prostate gland for a more thorough diagnostic assessment,” said Stacey Stevens, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Strategy for iCAD. “A necessary component to this technology is computer-aided detection (CAD) which uses advanced algorithms to help radiologists determine malignant from benign tissues and to pinpoint the tumor location and size.”

Quantitative image analysis and review software (iCAD’s VividLook) technology provides a means of visualizing the presence and patterns of suspicious lesions among the images taken by MRI and obtaining the quantitative results of key physiological parameters to allow the users to discern the different contrast enhancement profiles in malignant versus benign tissues.