Gizmos & Gadgets: UK Company Develops Imaging Tech That Finds Cancer in Real Time to Help Surgeons Remove It

November 2, 2016 – Lightpoint Medical is reimagining medical imaging for use in cancer surgery. The company, located in Chesham, United Kingdom, has developed imaging technology that finds incidents of cancer often left behind during initial surgical procedures. The problem Lightpoint is addressing is the 1 in 4 cases of breast cancer and prostate cancer surgery that require secondary procedures because not all of the cancerous mass gets removed.

With its two products, LightPath(TM), a stationary camera for imaging tumors, and EnLight(TM), a handheld fiber-optic camera, when combined with injected radioactive dyes, contrast agents to highlight body tissue, a surgeon gets to see what before was only imaged by prior diagnostic scans. In other words, pictures that do not reflect the real-time environment the surgeon faces.

Currently the company has ongoing clinical trials for breast and prostate cancer. The technology is being used in a third clinical trial to address stomach cancers. All trials are in the United Kingdom with plans to introduce the technology into the United States subject to FDA approval.

The immediate benefit to patients – a reduction in secondary surgeries to remove missed cancer which means better outcomes with less likely recurrence and enormous financial savings.

The technology uses Cerenkov Luminescence Imaging (CLI), and commercially available Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging agents within the surgical suite during procedures. It is low cost, portable and accurate.

The company in the last month was named as the winner of the Grand Prix prize at the British Engineering Excellence Awards. Speaking on behalf of the awarding body, Eric Wilkinson states, “that an organization that can develop potential life-changing technology deserves special recognition.”