A computer attached to the probe analyzes the data and classifies the tissue as healthy, pre-cancerous or cancerous. We had expertise in developing advanced data collection devices but we needed additional high quality mathematical input on the analysis side. Polartechnics needed TruScan to be significantly better than its competition. We showed how to optimize its performance relative to PAP, and provided the mathematics and programs for doing it. Each year 300 women in Australia and hundreds of thousands of women around the world die from cervical cancer.
Early detection is the key to prevention.
The TruScan system is expected to save millions of dollars in pathology costs, since it eliminates the need to take scrapings from the cervix for assessment by pathologists. Skladnev says that clinical testing of TruScan has shown it to be at least 20 per cent more accurate than the PAP smear. The benefits for women are a less invasive test and a quicker result. This eliminates the stress of waiting for results and means that, when necessary, treatment can begin immediately. TruScan will be released in Europe this year and on the Australian market in 2002.