December 22, 2008 - SenoRx Inc. said the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted the company its sixth brachytherapy-related patent and fourth patent directly related to its Contura Multi-Lumen Radiation Balloon (MLB) catheter for the treatment of breast cancer.
The new claims allowed in United States Patent No. 7,465,568 add to SenoRx's current intellectual property relating to asymmetrically irradiating a patient's breast with the Contura MLB after breast biopsy or lumpectomy procedures.
SenoRx received FDA 510(k) clearance for Contura MLB in May 2007 for delivering radiation to the tissue surrounding the lumpectomy cavity following surgery for breast cancer. For appropriate patients, Contura MLB is one of a new class of devices, which may reduce treatment time to five days from six to eight weeks. SenoRx believes that the Contura MLB may play an important role in the shift from traditional whole breast radiation therapy to localized partial breast radiation therapy. Contura MLB's multi-lumen design aims to deliver improved dosimetric coverage of the targeted tissue while minimizing the radiation dose to healthy tissue. Some patients who are presently candidates for balloon therapy are currently excluded because of the location of the lesion and their breast size. Contura MLB's advanced multi-lumen design may help address this issue for certain patients. Full commercial launch of Contura MLB began in early 2008.
For more information: www.senorx.com