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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Computerized Thermal Imaging CIO (formerly COII) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gwolf who wrote (741)	7/2/1998 2:12:00 AM
From: chirodoc	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6039

Computer System to Detect Cancer Gets Federal Regulators' Approval ...this, imho, validates computer algorithms in the detection of breast cancer. By ROCHELLE SHARPE Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration approved a computer system that could significantly improve the chances of detecting breast cancer. The machine, made by R2 Technology Inc., can analyze mammograms and highlight suspicious areas. Studies have estimated that radiologists typically fail to detect 20 out of every 100 cancers on mammograms. With the M1000 ImageChecker, radiologists may be able to catch eight of every 20 cancers they may otherwise overlook, the FDA estimated. The company conducted clinical studies on more than 40,000 mammograms. "This device could make the difference between a woman's cancer being caught in the early stage or the late stage," said Alan Stein, the Los Altos, Calif., company's vice president of regulatory affairs, noting that the typical tumor doubles in size every 100 days. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American women, with about 180,000 new cases diagnosed and 45,000 deaths each year. Early detection is a key to survival. If a woman's cancer is less than one centimeter in diameter, she has a 90% chance of surviving. The computer system analyzes mammography films that have been turned into digital signals. It compares each signal with its digitized database of cancerous mammograms, running about 300 to 400 million mathematical computations per film to search for subtle problems. The process takes three or four minutes. The signals are converted back into the mammogram image, with suspicious areas highlighted. Radiologists are expected to use the computer to doublecheck their original interpretation of each mammogram. Interpretation errors account for about 10% of missed breast cancers; another 10% are overlooked because the cancers were too subtle. R2 Technology, which is closely held, expects to sell the system for about $175,000 and market it to the 10,000 or so mammography centers nationwide.