SpectraScience awarded U.S. patent for methods and apparatus for evaluating image focus

Jan 6 2009

SpectraScience, Inc. has announced that it has been awarded U.S. Patent number 7,469,160 for its methods and apparatus for evaluating image focus.

Jim Hitchin, SpectraScience's CEO, commented, "This patent is another important addition to our expanding intellectual property portfolio."

The invention provides methods of focusing an instrument for the acquisition of optical data from a tissue sample. It allows rapid focusing in a diagnostic procedure in which quick data acquisition is desirable. For example, the techniques allow a user to focus an optical instrument quickly enough to obtain data within an optimal window of time. In one version, a user focuses an optical instrument by aligning laser spots projected onto a tissue sample within rings that are superimposed at predetermined locations within the user's visual field. The invention further allows automatic validation to detect whether the spots are sufficiently well-aligned.

Hitchin added, "Accurate data acquisition and fast focusing techniques are critical for earlier and more effective identification of normal, pre-cancerous or cancerous tissue. This invention will make our screening devices more useful to the physician and, more importantly, more effective for the patient. It allows the LUMA Cervical Imaging System to detect close to 30% more ASCUS/LSIL cervical cancer precursors than colposcopy alone, providing clinicians with a valuable tool in the fight against cervical cancer. In fact, a recent large-scale National Cancer Institute-sponsored clinical trial demonstrated that colposcopy failed to detect 33% of high-grade precancerous lesions in women referred with questionable Pap results."

SpectraScience holds approximately 60 patents worldwide that have been issued or are pending for its WavSTAT(R) Optical Biopsy and LUMA(R) Cervical Imaging Systems. These non-invasive optical 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.