Eckert & Ziegler Strahlen- und Medizintechnik AG

Regulatory Filings • Jun 17, 2010

News Details

Corporate | 17 June 2010 17:40

Eckert & Ziegler sees potential in Breast Cancer Brachytherapy

Eckert & Ziegler Strahlen- und Medizintechnik AG / Miscellaneous

17.06.2010 17:40

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Berlin, June 17, 2010 - The Berlin-based Eckert & Ziegler Strahlen- und
Medizintechnik AG (ISIN DE0005659700), a firm specializing in medical use
of radioactivity, today has announced through its Belgian subsidiary IBt
BEBIG (International Brachytherapy S.A.) its first results on a
radiobiological research program for monotherapy of early stage breast
cancer utilizing permanent implant brachytherapy.

Currently, the common treatment of early breast cancer involves breast
conserving surgery followed with External Beam Radiotherapy (EBRT) of the
entire breast. Data suggest that in properly selected patients there is no
need for the whole breast irradiation. Accelerated Partial Breast
Irradiation (APBI) is therefore investigated in clinical trials and might
be even replaced by a monotherapy using permanent implant brachytherapy.
For the patient, there is clearly a practical advantage to be treated by
brachytherapy rather than by EBRT: a reduction of treatment time. A
brachytherapy procedure is done in one day, while for EBRT patient needs to
come 25 to 40 consecutive days for treatment sessions.

A scientific paper was published in June 2010 in The International Journal
of Medical Physics (American Association of Physicists in Medicine) about
the radiobiological investigation on dose and dose rate for permanent
brachytherapy of breast using I-125 (Iodine) or Pd-103 (Palladium) sources
. It addresses the question of what could be the appropriate dose and dose
rate for permanent seed implants for breast cancer as monotherapy for
early-stage breast cancer.

Today permanent brachytherapy is mostly used to treat prostate cancer, but
there are now more and more interests to use this treatment option also for
early stage breast cancer. In 2007, IBt Bebig already partnered with the
University Hospital of Liège (CHU), Belgium, to do a series of trials as
described in a scientific paper published in the International Journal of
Radiation Oncology .

'It seems that based on our physical and radiobiological study, it exist a
window of opportunity for permanent implants with low energy sources for
the partial breast irradiation of early stage breast cancer', said Prof.
Dimos Baltas, Department of Medical Physics and Engineering,
Strahlenklinik, Klinikum Offenbach GmbH. Professor Baltas is member of
several national, European and international Organizations, Committees and
Task Groups with a long track record in the field of research in
brachytherapy. He is co-author of the Textbook 'The Physics of Modern
Brachytherapy for Oncology'.

'This new report shows the growing interest towards permanent seed
brachytherapy to cure cancer to other body site than only prostate. IBt
Bebig is committed to help finding new ways to use brachytherapy as a
treatment option. By doing so we fulfill completely our mission:
Contributing to saving lives !', said Dr. Edgar Löffler, Managing Director
of IBt Bebig and one of the authors of the report.

'As worldwide there are around 0.8 million estimated new cases of prostate
cancer per year and about 1.3 million new cases of breast cancer, there is
a potential for IBt Bebig to basically double its market size' said Dr.
Gunnar Mann, Managing Director of IBt Bebig.

The Eckert & Ziegler Group, with around 520 employees, is one of the
world's largest providers of isotope technology components for radiotherapy
and nuclear medicine.

3) Dimos Baltas, Georgia Lymperopoulou, Edgar Löffler, Panayiotis
Mavroidis, 'A radiobiological investigation on dose and dose rate for
permanent implant brachytherapy of breast using I-125 or Pd-103 sources',
Medical Physics, Vol. 37, No. 6, June 2010.
4) N. Jansen, J. M. Deneufbourg, and P. Nickers, 'Adjuvant stereotactic
permanent seed breast implant: A boost series in view of partial breast
irradiation,' International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology,
Physics, Volume 67, 1052-1058, March 2007.

Your contact for any enquiries:
Eckert & Ziegler AG, Karolin Riehle, Investor Relations, Robert-Rössle-Str.
10, 13125 Berlin, Tel.: +49 (0) 30 / 94 10 84-138, Fax -112, E-Mail:
karolin.riehle@ezag.de, www.ezag.de

17.06.2010 Ad hoc announcement, Financial News and Media Release distributed by DGAP.
Media archive at www.dgap-medientreff.de and www.dgap.de

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Language: English
Company: Eckert & Ziegler Strahlen- und Medizintechnik AG
Robert-Rössle-Str.10
13125 Berlin
Deutschland
Phone: 49 30 941084-138
Fax: 49 30 941084-112
E-mail: karolin.riehle@ezag.de
Internet: www.ezag.de
ISIN: DE0005659700, DE000A0L1L69
WKN: 565970, A0L1L6
Listed: Regulierter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard), Stuttgart;
Freiverkehr in Berlin, München, Düsseldorf, Hamburg

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