Accurate and Immediate Detection of Cervical Cancer

A pioneering new technology that offers a quicker, more accurate detection of cervical cancer in real time, removing several weeks of waiting for a diagnosis, was presented for the first time at Medica. Designed by British based Zilico Ltd, the APX is a portable hand-held device that measures the resistivity of cells and detects any changes as they progress from normal through to cancerous.

Cervical cancer affects around 500,000 women worldwide each year and is responsible for 300,000 deaths so its ability to provide objective and accurate results in ‘real-time’ means it will offer a quicker diagnosis for both patients and clinicians worldwide.

It will help to better manage the disease and also significantly reduce morbidity due to over-treatment and under-treatment due to false negative smears. The system is safe and painless and has two functionalities within the one unit - the APX 100, which supports clinicians within their diagnostic procedure and the APX 200, which is a point of care (POC) test.

The APX100 enables colposcopists to better target biopsy sites helping to reduce the number of diagnostic biopsies and avoid the gross over-treatment of mild abnormalities. It has undergone four separate clinical trials and is currently in the middle of an EU multicentre trial. Once this is completed, it will be launched across the European Union in 2010.

The APX 200 application is being targeted at the cervical screening market as it provides a real-time diagnosis at the primary pointofcare thus reducing the significant traffic in the healthcare system between primary care, cytology laboratories and colposcopy clinics. Ultimately it will result in a more effective application of limited healthcare resources.