Zetiq Reports Success In Clinical Trial Aimed To Identify And Diagnose Cervical Cancer

Main Category: Cervical Cancer / HPV Vaccine
Also Included In: Clinical Trials / Drug Trials
Article Date: 12 Jan 2009 - 3:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Zetiq Technologies, a subsidiary of Bio-Light Ltd., has successfully completed the first arm of its cervical cancer clinical trial, aimed at identifying and diagnosing cervical cancer in biopsies via the Zetiq proprietary differential coloring stain. The goal of the trial was to demonstrate and measure the ability of Zetiq's technology to accurately diagnose the presence of cervical cancer cells and the stage of the disease, including in early stages of malignancy, in cervical biopsies.

The study reviewed 60 biopsy samples obtained from the archive of Meir MC in Israel which were selected by an unrelated party.

The study results demonstrated 100% correlation between the diagnosis based on Zetiq's technology and diagnosis based upon H&E staining, the current gold standard diagnostic tool used to identify cervical cancer.

The study included both Biopsy samples without any abnormal findings (control cases) as well as biopsy samples from advanced disease stages, including from early pre malignant stages of the disease. The company's technology was able to diagnose the samples by both a color stain of the cancer cells as well as the morphological cell changes.

On the basis of the positive results, Zetiq intends to pursue the development of its diagnostic product for diagnosis of cervical cancer.

The second arm of the study, aimed at implementing the technology as a screening survey application to point to potential cases of cervical cancer, is still ongoing.

"We are very encouraged by the results of this trial, which provide a novel tool for cancer diagnostics," said Dr. Adi Elkeles, CEO of Zetiq. "This important milestone sets the stage for continuing our efforts to develop diagnostic tools for cervical cancer, and opens the door to expanding our efforts to develop diagnostic tools for additional cancer indications," he added.

Zetiq's technology, known as CellDetect™, uses Dual analysis of both color discrimination and morphological analysis to differentiate between cancerous and normal cells.

"The CellDetect™ technologies ability to detect cancer cells is exceptional," said Dr. Ami Eyal, Medical Director of Zetiq and CEO of Bio-light, its parent company. "It has the potential to reduce inter-observatory differences largely associated in diagnosis of early stages of cervical cancer. This has much potential for correct diagnosis and grading, especially in areas of the world where cervical cancer is endemic, that have limited resources available for precise diagnosis," he added.

The current US market for cervical cancer diagnostics exceeds $1 billion. In the US alone, more than 70 million PAP smears are carried out each year.

Zetiq is a subsidiary of Bio-Light Life Science Investments, a management and holding company specializing in biomedical technologies. Bio-Light is traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the symbol TASE:BOLT.

http://www.zetiq.co.il