Alliance to Improve Detection of Cancer

In a strategic alliance aimed at improving the detection of cancer, Eastman Kodak Company (Rochester, NY, USA) plans to integrate computer aided detection (CAD ) software from R2 Technology (Los Altos, CA, USA) into its computed radiography (CR) and digital radiography (DR) systems.

R2 Technology uses pattern recognition algorithms to mark areas with subtle characteristics of specific disease states so radiologists can study those areas in greater detail, thereby enabling them to identify early-stage cancers. The company's ImageChecker System is based on this technology and is the only CAD system to be cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for breast cancer screening. For every 1,000 cancers currently detected by mammography, R2 Technology reports that use of the ImageChecker could result in early detection of an additional 20,500 breast cancers.

Kodak and R2 Technology will work together to develop new applications for CAD technology in conjunction with a variety of imaging modalities. One field of interest is lung cancer, where currently only about 15% of cancers are found in the early stages because the disease is difficult to detect then. In the United States alone, an estimated 156,900 people will die of the disease in the year 2000.