Technology identifies cancer with more certainty than current tests
Dr. Bruce Patterson, former Director of Virology at Stanford University Hospital and CEO of California-based IncellDx Inc., issued the following statement in response to new cervical cancer screening recommendations issued this week by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). Patterson addressed the 2011 American Society for Clinical Pathology Annual Meeting in Las Vegas where he offered his thoughts on the announcement.
"I applaud the efforts of the USPSTF to drive revisions to outdated medical guidelines in order to achieve better clinical outcomes and more efficient healthcare economics," said Patterson. "I agree with the new guidelines and the need to reduce the number of false positives created by Pap and HPV tests. IncellDx is developing '3Dx' to address this concern."
Patterson's new '3Dx' technology utilizes three-dimensional imagery of cells in addition to molecular biomarkers in the hopes of establishing accurate determination about whether those cells are cancerous or pre-cancerous.
The technology maintains the three-dimensional integrity of each individual cell by keeping cells suspended in liquid rather than smashing the cells onto a glass slide. Protein and molecular biomarkers are applied to the intact cells, while the cellular measurements usually performed by a pathologist with a microscope are measured directly by the instrument, which eliminates the subjectivity of visual inspections.
'3Dx' technology represents the potential for a new early-stage test for breast cancer. After extracting cells through a needle from the breast, medical laboratories would potentially have the ability to use Patterson's '3Dx' technology to quickly and accurately determine whether a woman has cancerous or pre-cancerous cells in the breast without a biopsy. This application of the technology, which is in development, would allow doctors to quickly identify pre-cancerous and cancerous cells in the breast in addition to identifying other significant prognostic markers. Patterson's new technology represents the potential for actionable information at the earliest possible stage of breast cancer development.
IncellDx, Inc. is a molecular diagnostics company dedicated to the detection and monitoring of life threatening diseases such as cervical cancer, breast cancer, HIV/AIDs, hepatitis, and organ transplant rejection.
Contacts:
IncellDx, Inc.
Eric Hass, 650.777.7630
