SEATTLE, Sept. 16, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- University of Washington Physicians
are the first in the Pacific Northwest to be using the world's smallest
microscope to improve GI and biliary disease detection and to speed treatment.
A new real-time optical biopsy can be performed with a probe-based confocal
laser endomicroscopy (pCLE) system, known as Cellvizio, the world's smallest
flexible microscope. Cellvizio is helping physicians detect tissue in the GI
tract that could lead to various types of cancers such as: colon; esophageal;
pancreatic; and cholangiocarcinoma (cancer of the bile ducts).
These cancers combined are responsible for thousands of deaths each year in the
United States. For pancreatic cancer alone, over 37,000 individuals are
diagnosed and over 34,000 die each year from it. In addition, The American
Cancer society notes that esophageal cancer rates have continued to increase in
the last 20 years.
Now, UW Medicine physicians are leading cancer detection to diagnose
gastrointestinal and biliary diseases on the spot and treat patients
immediately. This new tool allows them to view tissue inside a patient's body in
real time at the cellular level so they can precisely pinpoint tissue that
should be removed or treated.
Cellvizio can more accurately differentiate cancerous and pre-cancerous tissue
during colonoscopies, endoscopies, and ERCPs, the standard pancreatic and bile
duct cancer detection procedure.
"Until now, if we found suspicious tissue during one of these diagnostic
procedures, we often had to randomly cut out tissue and send it to a laboratory
for analysis which can take up to a week," explained Michael Saunders, M.D., UW
Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Digestive Diseases
Center at UW Medical Center. "This not only meant that sick patients would have
to come back for treatment later, but that dangerous tissue could be missed due
to random sampling techniques. With Cellvizio, we can pinpoint the dangerous
tissue during the initial diagnostic exam, remove it the same day and then go
back to ensure that we got it all."
"This new imaging tool gives us the opportunity to immediately see changes in
the cells and potentially gain insights of what may be wrong and thus optimize
patient treatment," noted Joo Ha Hwang, M.D., Ph.D., UW Assistant Professor of
Medicine, Digestive Diseases Center. "Importantly, Cellvizio is effective at
ruling out disease, which helps us avoid unnecessary procedures and the costs,
time and potential complications associated with them."
Cellvizio(r) is cleared by the Food & Drug Administration for use in the
gastrointestinal tract and lungs, and over 3,000 Cellvizio procedures have been
completed worldwide to date.
To contact UW Medicine's Gastroenterology Department for more information on our
patient services or to schedule a physician appointment, call
(206) 598-4377.
Lazar Partners LTD. for Cellvizio
Erich Sandoval
(917) 497-2867
esandoval@lazarpartners.com