Sanovas Awarded Seminal Patent for Novel Radiation Oncology Drug/Device Platform

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Oct. 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Sanovas Inc., a Life Science company accelerating the development and commercialization of next-generation microinvasive diagnostics, devices and drug delivery technologies, announced today that US Patent No. 8,834,544 has issued to the Company.

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The patent, entitled "Photodynamic Therapy for Tumors with Localized Delivery," secures broad protection for new systems and methods for reversing hypoxia in therapy-resistant tumors and for delivering combination therapy to peripheral tumors, specifically lung cancer. The accuracy of the drug/device system is designed to reduce, if not eliminate, the systemic toxicity and side effects associated with traditional chemotherapy and radiation treatment.  The precision therapy technology incorporates direct visualization and local/regional drug infusion with photodynamic radiation and real-time treatment analytics to offer the clinician an objective, evidence-based approach to targeted radiation oncology.

"Treatment of peripheral lung tumors is growing more relevant given the increased burden of cases as lung cancer screening becomes mainstream," said Gordon H. Downie, MD, PhD, FCCP, a Pulmonologist at Northeast Texas Interventional Medicine, and a clinical adviser to Sanovas. "Challenges facing the clinician include protecting lung function in patients with already compromised abilities, optimal targeting of therapy to avoid serious injury to normal structures, real-time confirmation of clinical effectiveness, non-mutanegenic or carcinogenic tumorcidal agents, and the ability to assess for tissue hypoxia. Locally/regionally delivered and activated PhotoDynamic Therapy (PDT) can address all these challenges," added Dr. Downie, a US Olympian and former Associate Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University who is also widely recognized as one of the foremost authorities on the use of PhotoDynamic Therapy in the lungs. Dr. Downie's clinical research has been published in peer-reviewed medical journals such as CHEST, The American Journal of Respiratory Critical Care Medicine, and the Journal of Bronchology, among others.

"We want to avoid 'snake oil' promises for alternative oncologic agents, but peripheral PDT with local/regional assessment and drug-treatment delivery appears to adequately address all of these concerns," said Dr. Downie. "First, a directly observed delivery system ensures a concentration gradient favoring tumor kill over normal structure side effects. Second, the biochemical PDT reaction allows direct correlation of drug consumption with clinical real-time response. Because oxygen is also required for the PDT reaction, drug consumption can act as a surrogate marker for tissue oxygenation. Third, in my experience, I have never seen a primary lung tumor or any metastatic tumor to the lung be resistant to the PDT tumorcidal effect, and the reaction is neither mutanegenic or carcinogenic.

"One of the most common problems encountered during radiation therapy of malignant tumors is that the tumor cells become deficient in oxygen - a condition referred to as hypoxia," explained Dr. Downie. "It looks promising that this system addresses the hypoxia dilemma. As a long-time proponent of using PDT technology to address peripheral lung tumors, I am truly excited by the potential this approach could lead to, and I look forward to seeing clinical research to confirm the promise this patent suggests."

"There is a significant unmet clinical need for a method of treating hypoxic malignant tumors that is capable of delivering an oxygenating agent directly to target tumor tissue within a bodily cavity in order to achieve more precise and efficient oxygenation of the target tumor site, as well as to avoid exposing the surrounding healthy tissue to potentially damaging chemical agents," said Larry Gerrans, the Inventor, Founder, President and CEO of Sanovas. "This is especially promising for Lung Cancer, which is among the most recalcitrant cancers in the world and, by far, the deadliest of all. The PDT patent represents a milestone event toward a more targeted and less-invasive treatment for cancer and one that promises to mitigate the deleterious side effects of cancer treatment that we have become all too familiar with."

About Sanovas                
At the heart of the Sanovas companies' scientific advances is the miniaturization of tools for minimally invasive surgery, or "M-I-S." Its products extend access beyond current limits, enabling physicians to diagnose and perform therapeutic interventions in spaces as small as one millimeter in diameter that have previously been unreachable. Sanovas expects to commercialize the technology in coordination with its various partners to address unmet clinical needs in Oncology, Pulmonology, Cardiology, Neurosurgery, ENT, GI, General Surgery, Urology and Gynecology.

For more information go to http://www.sanovas.com

Contacts:

Steve Goldsmith, Sanovas, 415-729-9391 x1023, Email             
Ronald Trahan, APR, Ronald Trahan Associates, 508-359-4005 x108, Email

SOURCE Sanovas

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