April 8, 2009 - Cianna Medical said it has successfully completed a funding round totaling more than $10 million to further accelerate commercialization of the company’s proprietary SAVI technology for breast cancer brachytherapy.
Participating in the funding round, the company’s second, were Emergent Medical Partners, Saints Capital, Mitsubishi International Corp. and Fog City Fund (an initial investor in BioLucent), plus several private individuals.
“Our ability to raise money from knowledgeable, highly regarded investors, despite the challenging economic environment, is further evidence that SAVI is a breakthrough technology,” said Jill Anderson, Cianna’s President and CEO. “Cianna’s mission is to make the benefits of breast brachytherapy available to more women. It’s gratifying to achieve this goal thanks to the strength of our technology and because of SAVI’s increasingly broad acceptance among radiation oncologists, surgeons and patients.”
The SAVI applicator provides a shortened course of high-dose radiation therapy for early-stage breast cancer patients following lumpectomy surgery. Carefully contoured radiation is delivered from within the breast and targets the area where the cancer is most likely to recur. SAVI allows physicians to precisely target radiation to the area that needs it most, minimizing exposure to healthy tissue. This approach reduces treatment time from six or seven weeks -- which is generally required with conventional whole-breast irradiation -- to just five days.
For more information: www.CiannaMedical.com