Scientists Probe New Technology to Detect Cancer in Barrett’s

A new study in the US and Germany has begun to assess the viability of using a miniature endoscopic camera from Mauna Kea Technologies, a Paris, France company, to diagnose whether Barrett’s esophagitis has progressed to a dysplastic or neoplastic state. We have reported about the Cellvizio® fibered confocal microscopy system, that allows a practitioner to insert one of the miniprobes (only 300 um to 2.8 mm in diameter) into a conventional endoscope and record microscopic level movies of the tissue, on number of occasions before: see our flashbacks below.
From the latest press release by the company:

"Until now, we haven’t been able to differentiate dysplastic and cancerous tissue within the Barrett’s segment, so we take random biopsies from the area in hopes that this will represent an accurate sample," said Prateek Sharma, MD, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of Kansas School of Medicine and the Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Kansas City, Missouri, USA and the trial’s principal investigator. "With this study, we hope to confirm that viewing Barrett’s tissue at the cellular level with the Cellvizio miniprobe increases our ability to identify and immediately remove abnormal tissue without as many biopsies." Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, the Veteran Affairs Hospital in Kansas City, Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida and Klinikum rechts der Isar in Munich, Germany plan to enroll more than 100 patients in the study, known as DONT BIOPCE (Detection Of Neoplastic Tissue in Barrett’s Esophagus with In vivO Probe-based Confocal Endomicroscopy).
"We hope to reproduce the positive results of our earlier Barrett’s Esophagus studies in a wider group of physicians and patients," explained Sacha Loiseau, president, CEO and founder of Mauna Kea Technologies, the company that developed Cellvizio. "We believe this new study will help underscore the impact that more accurate biopsy targeting can have on therapeutic patient management, improved patient care and efficiency within the hospital."
Barrett’s Esophagus occurs when gastroesophageal reflux disease causes stomach acid to leak back into the esophagus and damage the lining. This can increase the risk of cancer of the esophagus (adenocarcinoma), the symptoms of which can be difficulty swallowing or weight loss.

Mauna Kea’s video introducing the Cellvizio GI: