MRI-Guided Breast Biopsy Now Mainstream

Suros Surgical Systems, Inc. (Indianapolis, IN, USA), a developer of medical devices, has created a system called Atec that can perform a 30-minute MRI-guided vacuum-assisted breast biopsy. More than 8,000 MRI-guided breast biopsy procedures have been successfully performed using the MRI Atec system since May 2003. Suros received European CE Mark approval in November 2005, clearing the way for commercial availability of the Atec system in the European Union.

Dr. Morris observed that existing clinical studies support the significant role that breast MRI plays in screening the high-risk population and staging patients with a recent breast cancer diagnosis. In at least three recent clinical studies of MRI-guided breast biopsy using the Suros Atec system, results showed a 96%, 98%, and 100% technical success rate of targeting and acquiring suspect tissue with a total average procedure time of 35 minutes, including scans.

"These were some of the first patients who had MRI-guided vacuum assisted breast biopsy,” stated Connie Lehman, M.D., Ph.D., director of breast imaging at the University of Washington Medical Center (Seattle, USA). "Since then, procedure times have been reduced even more. As MRI is increasingly applied to screen high-risk women, safe, minimally invasive, and efficient techniques of MRI-guided biopsy are essential for MRI to be effective in detecting cancer earlier in this patient population.”


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