Dec 11, 2009

New Way to Fight Cancer

Cell>Point is a company that plans to deliver a cheaper and more effective way to detect tumors in 2010.

Doctors currently rely on positron-emission tomography (PET) scans to see tumors. But PET machines cost more than $2.5 million apiece and are usually found only in major medical centers. MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, had developed a chemical that could light up a tumor on a common SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) camera. They wanted Cell>Point's owner to help turn it into a product.

More affordable at about $800,000, SPECT cameras are found in six times as many US hospitals as PET scanners and Cell>Point's isotope uses 70% less radiation than PET isotopes and should cost about half as much, about $800 per scan.

Doctors can determine within about two weeks whether a cancer treatment was working, instead of waiting for months with PET scans. Now it is time to begin the costly FDA approval process, but don't expect that to be accomplished next year.