New test spots cancer
of cervix in early stages

House members get a briefing on
the locally developed technology

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By Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.com

A painless technique taking only seven seconds is being tested by a local company to detect cervical cancer at its earliest stage.

The procedure simply involves taking a color picture of the cervix, Nicholas J. Susner, president and chief executive officer of Science & Technology International, told the House Health Committee yesterday.

He was invited to discuss the development informally with the legislators. With him was Dr. Katarina Svanberg, chief oncologist at the Lund University Hospital and Medical School in Sweden, who is collaborating with the company.

They said cervical cancer trials have been completed in Lithuania and will resume next week at Tripler Army Medical Center using noninvasive diagnostic imaging instruments designed and developed by STI.

"It's a new way of detecting cancer," Susner said.

Svanberg said more than 100 women were screened with the technique in Lithuania. It was chosen for the trials because of ongoing research collaborations, a large number of patients with elevated levels of human papilloma virus, a precursor to cervical cancer, and many who cannot afford screening, she said.

She said a high percentage of women in Lithuania smoke, especially young women, and they are 30 times more likely to get cervical cancer.

She said thousands of women die annually from cervical cancer, and STI's procedure provides a way to distinguish cancer from noncancer.

This is done with use of 300 colors instead of three, Susner said.

The imaging instrument is placed about eight inches from the cervix.

"The beauty of this technique," Svanberg said, is that cell changes can be identified even before cancer develops and are seen with the naked eye.

Tissue types are distinguished by their absorption of light. Precancerous areas tend to have an increased metabolism and larger blood flow than normal tissue.

The image is displayed within seconds on a screen similar to a laptop computer, and the software processes the information and determines suspicious vs. normal areas.

Susner said they have looked at about 200 women so far with STI's HyperSpectral Diagnostic Imaging. Results have been successful, but thousands of patients must be tested in clinical trials required by the Food and Drug Administration.

Trials starting next week at Tripler will continue for three months with Hawaii women scheduled for care.

The company's technology, also used to detect submarines, mines and environmental problems, was described by Aviation Week & Space Technology in January 2001 as "perhaps being the farthest advanced hyperspectral imaging system worldwide."

The 22-year-old technology firm has offices in downtown Honolulu and Hilo, and operations at the Pacific Disaster Center on Oahu and on Maui.