Frank, I am pleased to announce the the FDA has approved the Autopap for primary screening. The announcement hit the internet at 2:00 pm May 5th. With all the negative publicity that imaging machines just drive the pap price up with no real advantage over human screening, I am not expecting a sudden jump in stock price. IMO we will see a gradual increase to previous $30.00 levels.
Frank, DNA hybridization is all well and good if you want to know if you are in a high risk group for Cervical Cancer but screening for exposure to HPV does not predict who will progress to carcinoma.
Only a few of the many HPV subtypes progress to cancer and even the ones that are known to progress may stop at the low grade dysplasia level and progress no further. I would imagine that of all the population exposed to HPV only 10 percent or so progress to a high grade/carcinoma level lesion.
This autopap is the only cost effective method of reducing human screening errors, in particular those involving small CIS cells that are easily overlooked when any obscuring factor is involved. These are also the cells missed when screening speed is too fast for the individual cytotech. The phrase, speed kills, is applicable to cytology screening too.
I have only used the DNA screening once, it was on a Doctors daughter who we had signed out with HPV changes. She did not have one of the notorious few HPV types that most likely progress to cancer.
I am extremely happy that there is an alternative to subjective human frailty,(not all of us are frail, some of us are excellent screeners). Now we need to get the insurance carriers to pay for the $5-$6 increase in the price of pap to prevent needless cancer deaths.
May I add something that was beaten into me by a Jamaican Histotechnologist. She told me when biopsying the penis, you get tiny ,virtually insufficient tissue samples. In general, when there is any biopsy or surgery involving women, they just whomp IT off.
I have to say that she was proven right on many occasions.
Could it be that the additional 5 bucks is not justified because the lives being saved are female? Enough said. I personally am delighted that a primary safety net has been approved. May I wish you good luck in all your trading and I am impressed with your knowledge of womens health issues. |
