The presence of individual tumor cells (micrometastasis) in bone marrow and peripheral blood is gaining importance as a prognostic marker for various carcinomas. Until recently, detection required manual identification and analysis that was laborious, time-consuming, and error-prone. In September the Food and Drug Administration approved the marketing of MDS, a new, automated slide-scanning microscopy platform and cell-ular imaging system developed by Applied Imaging Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif. The MDS system provides the flexibility and precision required to aid oncologists in the accurate diagnosis of primary and recurrent carcinomas.
Automation has yielded higher sensitivity and reproducibility levels. According to Hans Tanke of Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands, the increased reliability and sensitivity of the MDS system has a definite clinical impact. "The automated screening provided by the MDS system is excellent," adds Jahn Nesland, head of the Department of Surgical Pathology, Norwegian Radium Hospital. "The great advantage is...
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