The Science

In 2002 Dr Costas Balas founded Forth Photonics (now DySIS Medical) and performed the early research on Imaging of Cervical Neoplasia Using Acetic Acid as a biomarker and invented the DySIS technology.

The DySISmedical R&D team then developed the dynamic spectral imaging platform technology^1,2,3,4 to assist the in vivo diagnosis of epithelial pre-cancers (optical biopsy). DySIS implements this concept to radically improve colposcopic performance.

It provides information-rich diagnostic signals enabling the detection and mapping of functional and structural alterations that occur in abnormal epithelial cells during the progress of the disease.

DySIS measures the acetowhitening phenomenon, which is highly correlated with the altered structure and functionality of the abnormal epithelium. Modeling and analysis of the measured dynamic curves enables the calculation of dynamic parameters expressing the marker-tissue interaction kinetics for every image pixel.

Laboratory and clinical studies have shown that the obtained kinetic data are correlated with the rate, extent and duration of aceto-whitening, helping the clinician to differentiate between neoplastic and non-neoplastic lesions as well as between neoplasias of different grades.

The spatial distribution of these parameters comprises the dynamic map, which can be overlaid onto the color image of the tissue. This data assists the in vivo detection, mapping and grading of the lesion for diagnosis, screening and follow up, while simultaneously enabling the on-line guidance of biopsy sampling and surgical treatment.

Published Papers:

1. Balas et al, In Vivo Molecular Imaging of Cervical Neoplasia Using Acetic Acid as Biomarker. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 2008, (14): p.29-42

2. Balas, C., A novel optical imaging method for the early detection, quantitative grading, and mapping of cancerous and precancerous lesions of cervix. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 2001. 48(1): p. 96-104.

3. Balas, C.J., et al., In vivo detection and staging of epithelial dysplasias and malignancies based on the quantitative assessment of acetic acid-tissue interaction kinetics. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B-Biology, 1999. 53(1-3): p. 153-157.

4. Balas, C., et al., In Vivo Assessment of Acetic Acid-Cervical Tissue Interaction Using Quantitative Imaging of Back-Scattered Light: Its Potential Use for the In Vivo Cervical Cancer Detection Grading and Mapping. SPIE-Optical Biopsies and Microscopic Techniques, 1998. 3568: p. 31-37.