SAN DIEGO, Calif.—Presentations at the recently concluded Digestive Disease Week Conference (DDW) in San Diego featured positive data on the ability of the SpectraScience WavSTAT4 Optical Biopsy System to diagnose early stage colorectal and esophageal cancer, SpectraScience reported.
"We are very encouraged by the research results presented during DDW and by the discussions we had with physicians throughout the conference," said SpectraScience's CEO, Michael Oliver. "I believe these studies and the ongoing research with the Optical Biopsy System can support our commercialization efforts now underway in Europe."
In a live presentation titled "Fluorescence Spectroscopy Incorporated in an Optical Biopsy System (OBS) for the Detection of Early Neoplasia in Barrett's Esophagus (BE)," Dr. David Boerwinkel from the department of gastroenterology and hepatology at the Academic Medical Center (AMC) in Amsterdam provided results of endoscopies on 32 patients with Barrett's esophagus in which areas suspicious for neoplasia and endoscopically inconspicuous areas were collected with the WavSTAT OBS, followed by a correlating physical biopsy with the optical biopsy forceps for histological evaluation.
"This feasibility study shows that the WavSTAT OBS is able to distinguish non-dysplastic Barrett's mucosa from high grade intraepithelial neoplasia (HGIN) or early cancer (EC) at early stage," said Dr. Boerwinkel. "The WavSTAT Optical Biopsy forceps is a great tool for future spectroscopy studies given the optimal tissue correlation, and the OBS may aid the endoscopist during surveillance endoscopy for early Barrett's neoplasia and improve surveillance efficacy."
