VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Nov 28, 2012) - Verisante Technology, Inc. (TSX VENTURE:VRS)(VRSEF)(V3T.F) (the "Company" or "Verisante"), a leader in cancer detection technology, announced that the research team at the BC Cancer Agency is presenting a poster on study results for lung cancer at the BC Cancer Agency 2012 Annual Cancer Conference, November 29-December 1, 2012; and making an oral presentation at a clinical imaging session at SPIE Photonics West 2013, February 2-7, 2013.
Verisante, under a licensing agreement with the BC Cancer Agency, owns the exclusive world-wide rights to the technology being presented by the research team. The platform technology has been used in the Company''s first product, Verisante Aura™, for the detection of skin cancer, and is applicable for the detection of lung cancer through the use of a fiber optic probe that goes down the biopsy channel of a bronchoscope.The poster, entitled Characterization of Pre-neoplastic and Neoplastic Bronchial Lesions using Laser Raman Spectroscopy will be presented by Dr. Haishan Zeng. The research was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canadian Cancer Society and confirms the results of the pilot study, which were published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology in July 2011.
The results of the pilot study published last year indicated that Verisante''s system technology could set a new standard for the early detection of lung cancer.
Autofluorescence bronchoscopy has a high sensitivity but low specificity for localization of pre-neoplastic lesions and early bronchial cancers. The previous pilot study showed that the addition of a point laser Raman spectroscopy (LRS) measurement increased the specificity to over 90 per cent for differentiating high grade dysplasia and carcinoma in situ from benign lesions with little loss in sensitivity.
The current study builds on the initial success of the pilot study, by expanding the sample size to 267 additional measurement sites (from 129 in the pilot study) using the improved Raman system. The pilot study was able to obtain clear in vivo Raman spectra in one second and pre-neoplastic lesions were detected with a sensitivity of 96 per cent and a specificity of 91 per cent. The current study found that the sensitivity and specificity of the new generation system remain similarly high with the larger sample cohort with an increase in specificity and only a slight reduction in sensitivity as previously found.
The principle investigators of the study are Dr. Stephen Lam, chair of the Lung Tumor Group at BC Cancer Agency, and Dr. Haishan Zeng, senior scientist at the BC Cancer Agency''s Integrative Oncology Department. Dr. Lam will also be chairing the session at SPIE Photonics West 2013 where the results will be presented by Dr. Zeng.
"This confirmation of the results of the pilot study is an important step towards our efforts to commercialize the Verisante Core™," said Thomas Braun, President and CEO. "We can now begin to move towards obtaining regulatory approval for our lung cancer application that has the potential to improve patient outcomes and access the $5 billion per year medical endoscope market."
The technology behind the Verisante Core™ for Lung Cancer detection was also named a Top Ten Cancer Breakthrough earlier this year by the Canadian Cancer Society
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