STI Completes Cervical Cancer Imager Trials

HONOLULU, Feb. 11 -- Clinical trials using a noninvasive, pain-free cervical cancer detection imaging instrument have been completed by Science & Technology International (STI) in Lithuania. STI is using what is believed to be the first such diagnostic tool for cervical cancer, its HyperSpectral Diagnostic Imaging system. To date, STI has scanned 307 women worldwide.

STI's medical imaging instrument is placed about eight inches away from the cervix. The patient's cervix is scanned in one pass. Many color bands are collected, creating a large hyperspectral cube of data. Within seconds that image is displayed on a screen similar to a laptop computer.

"We have worked very hard at creating technology that can screen and detect cancer without the anxiety of waiting for the diagnosis," said Nick Susner, STI's president and CEO "Most camera systems can only see three colors -- red, green and blue. Our camera systems can see nearly 300 colors."

The medical trials were conducted over six weeks on 111 women at the Vilnius Hospital in Vilnius, Lithuania. Previous Food and Drug Administration trials at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii and the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC (1997-1999) involved screening nearly 200 women with abnormal Pap smear results. STI was awarded a multimillion dollar federal contract to conduct Phase II of the FDA trials. Phase III is scheduled to begin later this year.