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Technical.ly: Maryland-Made Breast Cancer Treatment System Gets FDA Clearance

Monday, January 8, 2018

After years of development from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and a Columbia-based company, the GammaPod will be used for treatment in Baltimore in 2018.

After nearly a decade in development, a device to treat breast cancer that was developed at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has a key clearance toward going to market.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave a 510(k) medical device clearance to the GammaPod, a device which treats early-stage breast cancer. The announcement was made in December.

“During radiation therapy, tumor cells are killed when their DNA is damaged by the radiation being absorbed into them. While radiation therapy has the potential to kill tumor cells, it can also damage healthy tissue around the tumor,” the FDA stated.

GammaPod requires patients to lie on their stomach. According to the University of Maryland-Baltimore, the device delivers a high dose of radiation to a tumor, but  keeps radiation from getting to normal breast tissue and other organs.

Click here to read the rest of the story via Technical.ly Baltimore.