SAN DIEGO, Dec. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SpectraScience, Inc. , a San Diego based medical device company, today announced that it has been awarded U.S. Patent number 7,459,696 for its methods and apparatus for calibrating spectral data.
Jim Hitchin, SpectraScience’s CEO, commented, “This is another key patent in our expanding intellectual property portfolio that underscores our commitment at SpectraScience to develop better, more reliable cancer screening technologies.”
The invention provides methods for calibrating spectral data acquisition systems. These calibration methods produce spectral data sufficiently accurate for use in tissue classification algorithms. The invention improves the accuracy of spectral-based tissue classification schemes, in part, by properly accounting for spatial variations, instrument-to-instrument variations, and patient-to-patient variations in the acquisition of spectral data from tissue samples.
Hitchin added, “Accurate calibration is critical to earlier and more effective identification of normal, pre-cancerous and/or cancerous tissue, and this invention provides methods of making our screening devices more useful to the physician and, more importantly, to the patient.”
SpectraScience holds approximately 60 patents worldwide that have been issued or are pending on its WavSTAT(R) Optical Biopsy and LUMA(R) Cervical Imaging Systems. These devices are used to diagnose tissue quickly to determine if it is normal, pre-cancerous, or cancerous. The WavSTAT and LUMA Systems are currently approved by the FDA for detecting pre-cancerous and cancerous tissue in the colon and cervix, respectively. An evaluation of the WavSTAT for detection of pre-cancers in the throat (“Barrett’s esophagus”) is being tested.
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause SpectraScience’s actual results to differ materially from results discussed in forward-looking statements. Readers are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made by SpectraScience in this news release, its most recent Form 10-K and in SpectraScience’s other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) that attempt to advise interested parties of the risks and factors that may affect SpectraScience’s business. These forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by the cautions and risk factors filed by SpectraScience in its annual report on Form 10-K and other documents.
About SpectraScience, Inc.
SpectraScience is a San Diego based medical device company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets spectrophotometry systems capable of determining whether tissue is normal, pre-cancerous or cancerous without physically removing tissue from the body. The WavSTAT Optical Biopsy System uses light to optically scan tissue and provide the physician with an immediate analysis. With FDA approval for sale in the U.S. and the CE Mark for the European Union, the WavSTAT System is the first commercially available product that incorporates this innovative technology for clinical use. The Company’s LUMA imaging technology has received FDA approval for an optical non-invasive system that is proven to more effectively detect cervical cancer precursors than conventional methods available in the market today.
CONTACT: Jim Hitchin, Chief Executive Officer of SpectraScience, Inc.,
+1-858-847-0200, ext. 201; or Todd Pitcher, Investor Relations of Hayden
Communications, +1-858-518-1387, for SpectraScience, Inc.
