UCLA School of Nursing selects CytoCore's PadKit Collection Kit for comparative cytology study of cervical cancer

Feb 26 2010

CytoCore Inc. (OTCBB:CYOE), the developer of cost-effective products used in the practice of cytology for the detection and diagnosis of cancer and cancer related diseases, announced today that PadKit® Collection Kit, a transport kit using an intralabial device for the collection of gynecological samples, has been selected by the UCLA School of Nursing as the sample collection system for a comparative cytology study of cervical cancer. Led by UCLA School of Nursing Associate Professor Dr. Dorothy Wiley, the study is funded by an initial grant from the UCLA School of Nursing and intended to identify low cost diagnostic solutions for cervical cancer screening in resource poor area.

“Governments around the world have become increasingly concerned with addressing women’s reproductive health issues. CytoCore believes that the PadKit as part of the CytoCore Solutions® technology will be a fundamental solution for underdeveloped countries where there is a shortage of medical infrastructure or where other barriers exist. In addition to addressing the cervical cancer screening needs of most of the world’s 3.3 billion women, we see an immediate need for the PadKit in the military as a follow up collection device after an initial exam, and as a primary collection device in the developed world public markets controlled by government reimbursement. We look to address these markets as soon as possible by expanding patient trials this year to expedite government approval both in the United States and overseas,” said Robert McCullough Jr., CEO of CytoCore Inc. “We obtained exclusive worldwide commercial licenses from QuantRx for PadKit for all cytology applications involving the collection of cellular samples that can be screened for a variety of gynecological cancers including cervical, endometrial, and ovarian, and for the collection of gynecological samples to be tested for the presence of HPV (Human Papillomavirus). We believe PadKit will be an effective complement to SoftPap® within our CytoCore Solutions family of products for the collection, preparation and analysis of cytology specimens for the detection of precancerous and cancerous conditions.”

Dr. William Fleming, President and Chief Scientific Officer of QuantRx added, “we continue to work closely with CytoCore and their talented group of engineers and scientists and are pleased with the progress we have jointly achieved since the inception of our relationship 18 months ago. We are excited about the prospect of PadKit and its application to CytoCore Solutions involving cytology applications.”

“We look forward to expanding our partnership with QuantRX by implementing their technology where applicable to ‘CytoCore Solutions’. We are also excited about another PadKit trial that is being conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and administered by UCLA involving the testing of 400,000 patients for HPV, a virus that has been identified as the cause of almost all cervical cancers,” Mr. McCullough continued.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, while cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the world, only 5 percent of the world’s women population of 3.3 billion have been screened for cervical cancer; which clearly highlights the need for access to cervical cancer screening. Because of the high cost and lack of advanced technologies, most women in both the developed and non-developed world are never tested for both non-cervical and cervical gynecological cancers until life threatening symptoms exits.

Mr. McCullough concluded, “by implementing CytoCore Solutions, we believe we will be able to streamline and significantly improve the quality, delivery time and cost of cytology cancer screening and diagnosis, which can detect precancerous and cancerous conditions in their early stages. In addition to cell collection, CytoCore Solutions will eventually involve our proprietary sample preparation and analysis methods incorporating the AIPS Imager, a computer assisted guided software system utilizing our proprietary stains and assays. Our goal is to significantly improve the time from sample collection to final diagnosis for many cancers from essentially many weeks to a matter of hours at a cost affordable to most of the world’s population.”