Mar 3 2010
Hybridyne Imaging Technologies, Inc., and the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory are among over 100 companies and technology innovators from across the nation and around the world that will compete for top honors at the WBT2010, March 16-17, in Arlington-DFW, Texas. The WBTshowcase in the world's largest forum for connecting pre-screened technologies and companies with licensees and investors.
Hybridyne's technology, called ProxiScan™, is capable of high-resolution imaging of prostate cancer. The unique component of the technology is a cadmium zinc telluride (CZT)-based compact gamma camera developed in collaboration with Brookhaven Lab scientists.
Hybridyne will present its new imaging technology to forum participants and commercialization experts at WBT2010. Over 500 professionals, including venture capitalists and fortune 1000 liscensees, attended last year’s event.
“The conventional wisdom for venture capital is that a down economy can be a great time to invest,” said Paul Huleatt, WBTshowcase CEO. “The pace of new innovations accelerates, the best deals rise quickly to the top and the sophisticated investors receive great value for their money.”
According to Mr. Huleatt, one in three WBTshowcase presenters goes on to secure venture funding, license the featured technology, or sell the showcased invention outright, representing over $450 million raised to date.
Terry Lall, Hybridyne's President and CEO said, “One in six men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime, and one in 35 will die from the disease. Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in men because there is no technology able to detect tumors at an early stage and localize them in fine detail, which can lead to early, lifesaving treatment. ProxiScan™ can detect tumors almost 10 times smaller than conventional gamma cameras. It delivers high performance in a small package at a much lower cost than conventional nuclear medical instruments.”
The common way to diagnose prostate cancer is through a blood test that measures the levels of a protein produced by the prostate gland called prostate-specific antigen, or PSA. Elevated PSA levels can indicate prostate cancer as well as some benign conditions, so often men must have an invasive biopsy to test for cancer.
Other methods for confirming a diagnosis of prostate cancer include either ultrasound imaging or conventional nuclear medical imaging techniques. These current imaging approaches have limitations, however. Benign and cancerous tumors cannot easily be distinguished by ultrasound, and fibrous tissues can be mistakenly identified as tumors if patients have had radiation treatment of the prostate previously. Traditional nuclear-imaging systems, such as positron emission spectroscopy and single photon emission computed tomography, produce lower-resolution images and are less efficient than Hybridyne’s compact digital camera. Also, the detectors in these systems are too large to be used for endoscopic measurements.
In contrast, Hybridyne's new CZT-based gamma camera is small enough for trans-rectal prostate cancer diagnosis, after the patient is injected with a tracer radiopharmaceutical. The high-resolution CZT detector, coupled with its miniaturized readout electronics, is the cutting-edge technology that drives the novel imaging system. Using this new technology, the working distance between the gamma camera and the prostate gland is minimized, allowing urologists to obtain better images with a smaller amount of injected radioactive tracer, compared to conventional nuclear medical systems.
“ProxiScan's™ cost, portability and performance will make it a must-have tool at all medical facilities focused on prostate-cancer diagnosis and treatment," Lall said.
Hybridyne continues to collaborate with Brookhaven Lab to develop 3-D hand-held imaging devices to investigate other cancers (breast, colorectal, ovarian, and cervical) and heart disease, and to integrate its ProxiScanTM camera with other imaging modalities, such as ultrasound.