Early warning system for cervical cancer

Every year, about 300,000 women worldwide die from cervical cancer. In many cases, they would have been saved if the disease had been spotted earlier.

Sheffield-based company Zilico believes it can play a major role in reducing the global death toll from cervical cancer.

It has devised APX, a portable device that detects changes in cells which lead to cancer.

Sameer Kothari, the chief executive of Sheffield-based Zilico, said it can detect cervical cancer in "real time" instead of forcing patients to wait several weeks before they receive a test result.

It is hoped it will reduce the chances of inappropriate treatment due to false negative smear tests.

It could also provide medics with a vital window of opportunity to fight the disease.

The APX100 enables colposcopists to target biopsy sites more effectively, so clinicians can assess whether a patient has cancer.

It has undergone four separate clinical trials and is undergoing an EU multi-centre trial.Once this is completed, it will be launched across the European Union in 2011.

The APX 200 application provides a quick diagnosis for the cervical screening market, which means limited healthcare resources can be used more effectively.

Zilico has developed Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy EIS, which is a system that enables doctors to tell the difference between normal, pre-cancerous and cancerous cells.

The early development work was carried out at the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Sheffield.

Mr Kothari added: "Something like 60 to 70 per cent of diagnostic biopsies turn out to be negative, which tells you we are doing too many unnecessary interventions. Our device uses the electrical properties of cells to discriminate between normal pre-cancer, low grade pre-cancer and high grade and invasive cancer.

"The clinician takes no more than two minutes to scan the cervix. He then gets a result in real time.

"We've recently been to countries such as India and China, which don't have the infrastructure that we have in the UK. They lose a lot of women annually from the disease. That's because women are not screened. Putting in the infrastructure would take years.

"This (APX) allows them to rapidly deploy a screening programme and hopefully we will be able to detect cervical cancer earlier and save lives."

A major problem faced by medical staff in developing countries is the failure of some patients to return to the clinic after undergoing a test for cancer, said Mr Kothari.

"This (system) allows a clinician to do the treatment there and then. The compliance issue goes away. You treat a lot more women and they survive the disease.

"The trial data is very positive. We shared this with our medical advisory board who are key clinicians from Europe. They've been very positive and they've said the device is doing the right things."

Zilico, which is based at the Sheffield Bioincubator, employs two staff, and Mr Kothari hopes to create more jobs.

He added: "The usual model a company like ours goes through is raising venture capital and then using that money to take the business forward –2009 was a very challenging year on that front. We are in the middle of an investment round, looking to raise money."

Zilico facts

Zilico is based at the Sheffield Bioincubator, a purpose-built facility which aims to provide a supportive environment for entrepreneurial bioscientists.

Apart from laboratories, the centre has IT and business support provided by partner organisations. It has been supported by the University of Sheffield, the South Yorkshire Objective 1 Programme and Yorkshire Forward.

Zilico is also a member of Medilink Yorkshire and Humber, a professional association which supports the growth of the healthcare technologies sector.Medilink provides specialist consultancy services for healthcare companies.