LED Medical Diagnostics looks to apply fluorescence visualization technology to dermatology

LED Medical Diagnostics (Burnaby, BC, Canada) is investigating application of its tissue fluorescence visualization technology to detection of skin cancer and other dermatologic diseases.

In mid-2011, the company announced that its tissue fluorescence visualization technology, first used in subsidiary LED Dental's VELscope oral screening device in 2006, also had significant potential in the dermatologic market. VELscope has received FDA and Health Canada clearance to help determine the appropriate surgical margin for the excision of oral cancer and pre-cancer.

LED Medical Diagnostics' founder and CEO Peter Whitehead notes that one particular application of interest for the VELScope is to better delineate surgical margins when excising the two most common types of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.

The company believes that its technology may be capable of enhancing a surgeon's success rate when excising diseased tissue. "Skin cancer surgery too frequently leaves cancerous tissue behind, due in part to the fact that the naked eye cannot always see the full extent of the carcinoma," Whitehead says. "We are hopeful that our proprietary tissue fluorescence technology will make it easier for surgeons to target and successfully remove all of the diseased tissue."

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