Raytheon BBN Technologies

False-Positive Reports of Breast Lesions Reduced by 49 percent in Clinical Trial

Cambridge, Mass., June 25, 2007 — BBN Technologies, an advanced technology solutions firm, today announced its patented Stereoscopic Digital Mammography (SDM) system significantly improves accuracy in the early detection of suspicious lesions in a clinical trial conducted at Emory University's Breast Imaging Center in Atlanta. With SDM, false-positive findings at screening were reduced by 49 percent and false-negative results were reduced by 40 percent compared to standard two-dimensional mammography.

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, according to the American Cancer Society. One woman in eight in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. Early detection and diagnosis is the single most relevant factor in predicting long-term survival.

SDM is a mammography system that provides a three-dimensional, in-depth image of the breast viewed by a radiologist on a Planar StereoMirror™ display. The results of the Emory University trial show that this new system enables a radiologist to detect subtle lesions that the standard digital mammogram fails to detect.

Interpreting standard mammography images presents a challenge to radiologists, as subtle lesions in the breast may be masked by overlying or underlying normal tissue. An additional challenge arises when these layers of tissue superimpose to resemble a lesion, leading to a false positive report. Stereoscopic mammography overcomes these challenges by providing a view that separates tissue in depth, making subtle lesions more visible and their characteristics far clearer.

The BBN Technologies SDM system was developed by Dr. David Getty, a division scientist at BBN Technologies and the principal investigator of the SDM project. He is also a prominent researcher in the field of medical imaging and a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Psychological Society. Dr. Getty conducted the preliminary study of SDM with Dr. Carl D’Orsi, the director of Breast Imaging at Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute and primary clinical investigator of the SDM trial. Dr. D’Orsi is a Fellow of the American College of Radiology, a founder of The Society of Breast Imaging, and Professor of Radiology and Hematology/Oncology at Emory University in Atlanta.

The ongoing clinical trial has included 1,093 women who receive both a standard digital mammogram and a stereoscopic digital mammogram. The results from the clinical trial will be the topic of a presentation at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) conference in Chicago on November 27.

"SDM is a promising new technology in the fight against breast cancer, and the results of this clinical trial are very exciting," said Dr. Getty. "We believe that the added information provided with the SDM system will result in less frequent recall of women for further work-up, reducing the emotional trauma, uncertainty, and financial costs associated with unnecessary additional diagnostic work and procedures."

Dr. Getty added, "In the current standard mammography exam, two images of the breast are taken from two different viewpoints. The radiologist must examine the two images individually and must then infer from the two images how the tissue is arranged in the breast volume. With the new stereo mammography technology, a stereo pair of images is taken, and then displayed on the new stereoscopic display workstation. The resulting three-dimensional image enables the radiologist to see directly how the tissue is distributed in depth in the breast."

About BBN Technologies
BBN Technologies solves real problems through the creation and disciplined application of advanced technology. With expertise spanning information security, speech and language processing, networking, distributed systems, and sensing and control systems, BBN scientists and engineers have amassed a substantial collection of innovations and patented solutions. Today, BBN is managing the planning and design of GENI, an advanced network facility spanning the United States; is saving lives in Iraq and Afghanistan with its Boomerang Shooter Detection System; operates the first metro quantum cryptography network; has deployed the first real-time foreign broadcast monitoring system; and is proving the benefits of the world's first stereoscopic digital mammography system in clinical trials. For more information, visit www.bbn.com.