SPECTRAL MOLECULAR IMAGING, INC. — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Melanoma, the fastest growing cancer worldwide, kills
SPECTRAL MOLECULAR IMAGING, INC. — SBIR Phase I award from Department of Health and Human Services.
- Amount
- $209,944
- Agency
- Department of Health and Human Services · National Institutes of Health
- Program / Phase
- SBIR · Phase I
- Solicitation
- PA13-234
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- CA
- Period
- —
Description
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Melanoma, the fastest growing cancer worldwide, kills more than one person every hour in the United States and costs more than 2.4 billion per year. Yet, if detected at an early stage, it can be easily cured with a tenfold improvement in survival rate and a hundredfold reduction in treatment cost. Current methods have not yielded the breakthroughs needed, either because they are too simple (visual examination of skin, with or with- out digital imaging) or because the required high sensitivity comes at the expense of lowered specificity, even in emerging advanced methods. What is necessary to address these unmet needs is a more sophisticated approach. We propose such an approach, based on analysis of the current state-of-the-art in melanoma diagnosis and feedback from clinicians, as well as concepts from the well-established field of risk management. We concluded that a combination of several imaging methods is needed, brought together onto the same instrument, in a