A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Cianna Medical (Aliso Viejo, California) reported that it is now a new company that will focus on its SAVI breast brachytherapy technology.

The creation of Cianna comes with the completion of Hologic’s acquisition of BioLucent (Bedford, Massachusetts) and its MammoPad breast cushion business by Hologic (also Bedford). Cianna is a spinoff of BioLucent, with Cianna retaining the same team that developed the SAVI technology.

Virtually all of BioLucent’s leadership team will remain at Cianna.

Steve Gex, CEO of Cianna, formerly BioLucent CEO, said, “SAVI offers a unique combination of attributes for delivery of post-lumpectomy radiation therapy, and Cianna is ideally positioned to maximize SAVI’s full potential for patients, surgeons and radiation oncologists.”

SAVI offers women who have had lumpectomy surgery a five-day course of treatment that the company terms as more convenient than external radiation, shich is six to seven weeks.

In addition, it says that the multi-catheter, expandable SAVI applicator provides a “precisely targeted, contoured dose of radiation that treats tissue surrounding the lumpectomy cavity from the inside out,” an approach designed to make the benefits of partial breast irradiation available to more women and greater control of the contour of radiation dose.

“SAVI technology has had a strongly positive reception from surgeons and radiation oncologists,” said Vicki Clements, VP of marketing for Cianna. “Those who have experienced SAVI have told us it may represent a significant advance in post-surgical breast radiotherapy.”