RITA Medical Systems Names New CFOMOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 16 /PRNewswire/ -- RITA Medical Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: RITA) today announced that Donald J. Stewart has joined the company as Vice President, Finance & Administration and Chief Financial Officer. Stewart will report directly to Barry Cheskin, RITA's President and Chief Executive Officer. Earlier this year the Company announced Marilynne Solloway's intention to retire and the initiation of a search for her replacement, and the Company is pleased to announce the successful outcome of that search.

Stewart comes to RITA from Abaxis, Inc., a medical device company manufacturing point-of-care blood analysis systems. Stewart spent three years at Abaxis as Vice President, Finance & Administration, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary. Previously he served as Vice President, Finance &

Administration of Mimetix, Inc., a woman's healthcare pharmaceutical company, and as Vice President, Finance and Treasurer of Sequus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., an oncology and infectious disease pharmaceutical company. Stewart is a certified public accountant with a B.S. degree in Accounting from San Francisco State University and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

"We are very pleased to bring Don onto our executive team," commented Barry Cheskin, RITA's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Don brings a wealth of financial, operational and investor relations expertise to the Company, and we look forward to his contributions to our continued success."

RITA Medical Systems develops, manufactures and markets innovative products for patients with solid cancerous or benign tumors. The proprietary RITA^® system uses radiofrequency energy to heat tissue to a high enough temperature to ablate it or cause cell death. While the company's current focus is on liver cancer, the company believes that its minimally invasive technology may in the future be applied to other types of tumors, including tumors of the lung, bone, breast, prostate and kidney. The company has received regulatory clearance in major markets worldwide, including the United States. In March 2000, RITA became the first radiofrequency ablation company to receive specific FDA clearance for unresectable liver lesions in addition to its previous general FDA clearance for the ablation of soft tissue. The company has sold over 20,000 of its disposable devices throughout the world.

The statements in this news release related to the company's plan to extend the technology to applications beyond the liver are forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in the company's S-1 registration statement and other recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the company's Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2000 and Reports on Form 10-Q for the periods ended September 30, 2000 and June 30, 2000.

NOTE: RITA is a registered trademark of RITA Medical Systems, Inc.
SOURCE RITA Medical Systems, Inc.
Web site: http: //www.ritamedical.com
CONTACT: Don Stewart, Chief Financial Officer of RITA Medical Systems, Inc., 650-314-3400, or dstewart@ritamed.com