GRANTS TOTALING $3.8 MILLION TO FUND RESEARCH ON CANCER-DETECTION IMAGING TECHNOLOGY

Federal funding totaling $3.8 million will support the use of laser opto-acoustic imaging technology developed by Fairway Medical Technologies for Phase II breast and prostate cancer detection research, the firm announced Nov. 7.

The funding includes authorization of a $2.7 million grant from the NIH's National Cancer Institute (NCI) to "further develop the imaging technology in laboratory animal tests and explore its use in attacking cancer tumor cells," the firm said.

Furthermore, a $1.1 million Small Business Innovation Research grant from the NCI will allow for the development of a commercial medical imaging system to detect prostate cancer in its early stages, the firm said.

The opto-acoustic technology will be introduced as a real-time screening tool for breast cancer detection and diagnosis -- which has an estimated $5.9 billion market in North America -- by Seno Medical Instruments. Seno has purchased the technology and entered into a long-term development agreement with Fairway, Fairway said.