A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Aurora Imaging Technology (North Andover, Massachusetts) reported establishing a partnership with a notable national laboratory of Taiwan, the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC), to collaborate on what the company termed "a variety of basic scientific and technological issues surrounding the detection of breast cancer."

The Aurora Breast MRI System is in use at breast health centers in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Through a new agreement, Aurora Imaging has commissioned NSRRC to engage in "various research and development projects." Scientists from several disciplines within NSRRC will serve as principal investigators and researchers, collaborating with Aurora's internal scientific research and development team.

"Aurora is . . . excited about this [collaboration]," said President/CEO Olivia Ho Cheng. "It came about after several months of discussions between Aurora . . . and NSRRC, one of the global leaders of 'light source' and . . . related scientific and technologies surrounding the production and utilization of light source."

She said the organizations have "a knowledge in accelerator development, material science, image processing and data mining, to name a few."

"Aurora Imaging Technologies' . . . breast MRI system is a logical beneficiary of our research initiatives," said Dr. Keng Liang, director of NSRRC. "While Aurora's dedicated breast MRI technologies were primarily developed in the United States, we have evidenced the technology's ability to address the rising health problem of breast cancer, now the No. 1 killer of women in Taiwan."

Liang added: "We have confidence in making major contribution in advancing the Aurora Dedicated Breast MRI technology through our extensive technical team in conducting research and development."

Qiagen offers free HPV testing in China

To mark International Women's Day, which was observed on Sunday, Qiagen (Venlo, the Netherlands) provided human papillomavirus (HPV) testing products for the testing of underprivileged women at 29 hospitals across China. HPV is the primary cause of cervical cancer.

The free testing program, held for the second year in a row, was part of the larger "3.8 Program" – a nationwide prevention campaign organized by the Cancer Foundation of China and partially sponsored by Qiagen.

"Qiagen is proud to continue its partnership with the Cancer Foundation of China after the success of last year's event," said Dr. Victor Shi, the company's Asia area president.

"Our goal at the Cancer Foundation of China is to improve awareness of cervical cancer and HPV screening in China to save lives," said Qiao Youlin, MD, general director of the event and chief of the department of cancer epidemiology at the Cancer Institute of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. "We believe that the best in preventative care, including HPV testing, should be available to all women. Last year we were able to help hundreds of women reduce their risk of developing cervical cancer."

Cervical cancer is the second-most-common cancer affecting women worldwide. Qiagen said that when used along with the traditional Pap test, its Digene HPV Test "can help drastically reduce the annual number of cervical cancer deaths in China and around the world."

Norwegian firm adds Enterix test

ScreenCancer (Oslo, Norway), a company offering cancer screening management services to employers, insurance companies and individuals, said that it has added the InSure FIT take-at-home colorectal cancer screening test to its European Cancer Screening Program.

Screen Cancer's two-year distribution agreement with Enterix, a subsidiary of diagnostic testing company Quest Diagnostics (Madison, New Jersey), grants ScreenCancer limited exclusive rights to offer InSure FIT in 24 countries of the European Economic Union.

Colon cancer is the second-most-common form of cancer in Europe. Despite considerable progress in treatment, the mortality rate in Europe has remained high and it has been concluded that it can only be reduced through an intensive campaign of prevention and screening, ScreenCancer said.

"We are pleased to provide annual colorectal cancer screening with InSure FIT to our customers," said CEO Christian Horn. "Colorectal cancer is often treatable and even preventable when caught early, which is why annual screening with the InSure FIT test is so important."

InSure FIT features a long-handled brush to collect two water-based samples, rather than the solid samples required by other FITs (fecal immunochemical tests) or FOBTs (fecal occult blood tests), and does not require any change in patient diet or medication.