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Anne Li                                                                                                April 2nd, 2017

The Institute of Biological and Medical Imaging at Helmholtz Zentrum München is heading the "Hybrid optical and optoacoustic endoscope for esophageal tracking" (ESOTRAC) research project, in which engineers and physicians together develop a novel hybrid endoscopic instrument for early diagnosis and staging of esophageal cancer. The device may reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies and, importantly, facilitate early-disease detection leading to earlier start of therapy, which improves therapeutic efficacy over late-disease treatment and leads to immense cost-savings for the health care system. ESOTRAC has been awarded four million Euros from Horizon 2020, the EU framework program for research and innovation. With more than 450 000 new cases per year and a five-year survival rate of only ten percent when diagnosed late, esophageal cancer (EC) is the sixth-leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Currently EC is detected using white-light endoscopy or random tissue biopsies, followed by histopathological analysis of excised tissue. Due to limitations of the current detection methods, EC is typically detected at an advanced stage which is treated surgically and attains poor survival prognosis.

See original article at: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-03-easier-diagnosis-esophageal-cancer.html