DECEMBER 5, 2008--SpectraScience Inc.(San Diego, CA) says it has been awarded a European patent for its optical biopsy instrument, which targets tissue diagnosis and reliable cancer screening. According to Jim Hitchin, SpectraScience's CEO, "This patent is important to the company's optical biopsy technology because it provides protection in the areas of tissue surveillance, characterization, diagnosis and treatment." The patent, he says, supports SpectraScience's fundamental technology for use of non-invasive, low-level lasers to diagnose pre-cancerous tissue, cancer tumors and lesions, to facilitate early detection and treatment.
"Accurate imaging is critical to earlier and more effective identification of normal, pre-cancerous and/or cancerous tissue, and this invention provides methods of making our screening devices more useful to the physician and, more importantly, to the patient," Hitchin noted.
SpectraScience holds approximately 60 patents worldwide that have been issued or are pending on its WavSTAT Optical Biopsy and LUMA Cervical Imaging Systems. These devices are used to diagnose tissue quickly to determine if it is normal, pre-malignant, or malignant. The WavSTAT and LUMA Systems are currently approved by the FDA for detecting pre-cancerous and cancerous tissue in the colon and cervix, respectively. An evaluation of the WavSTAT for detection of pre-cancers in the throat ("Barrett's esophagus") is being tested.