New Clinical Study Published Highlighting Value of Veran Medical Technologies’ SPiN Thoracic Navigation System & SPiNPerc

Veran Medical Technologies Inc., a privately-held medical device company and leader in image-guided endobronchial and percutaneous technology for diagnosis of lung cancer and therapy delivery, was recently highlighted in a new clinical study. This clinical study was focused on utilizing Veran’s SPiN Thoracic Navigation System and SPiNPerc, a navigated percutaneous approach to biopsy peripheral lung nodules, to biopsy suspicious peripheral lung nodules. The study was completed by a team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and was recently published in the Journal of Thoracic Disease.(1)

With recent data from the National Lung Screening Trial showing a reduction in mortality with CT screening and newer selection criteria for lung cancer screening, the issue of definitive diagnosis for peripheral solitary pulmonary nodules (SPN’s) has become even more prevalent.(2) Historical data has shown low diagnostic yield rates for these type of nodules which require multiple procedures in multiple departments to completely diagnosis and stage these patients.

A prospective pilot study was completed to investigate a multimodality approach for diagnosing and staging peripheral lung nodules by combining mediastinal staging (linear EBUS), navigated bronchoscopy and navigated TTNA (SPiNPerc) into a single procedure. Researchers selected small (~2cm) peripheral nodules less than 15mm from the pleura, the majority located outside of an airway, which present a difficult challenge for lung specialists today. Definitively diagnosing and staging these nodules commonly requires multiple procedures which delays the patient receiving the treatment needed. The study reported this multimodality, single procedure approach to have an overall diagnostic yield of 92%.

“Veran’s SPiN Thoracic Navigation System and SPiNPerc are transforming the physician’s ability to accurately access and diagnose hard-to-reach solitary pulmonary nodules (SPN’s) and to provide cost-effective care for the 2.7 million SPN’s found annually in the U.S.,” said Veran CEO Jason Pesterfield. “We are very excited by the results of this study and to be able to provide lung specialists more ways to target SPN’s in one procedure and help our customers save more lives through the early diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer.”

The SPiN Thoracic Navigation System and SPiNPerc are being used by many of the top cancer centers in the U.S., and have enabled physicians to navigate easily to suspicious nodules through either an endobronchial or percutaneous approach using a detailed, patient-specific airway map. With proprietary Always-On Tip Tracked® instrumentation and patient tracking of respiration, Veran enables accurate and fast diagnosis in a single procedure versus what has traditionally taken several procedures to get a lung cancer diagnosis.