Medical products developer Zilico, based in Manchester, U.K., has secured funding to develop a new device that detects oral cancer.
The company received two awards from the U.K.'s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board. The awards will support development projects worth 160,000 pounds ($272,000 U.S.), including an analysis of the U.K. market and also delivering product specifications for an oral diagnostic device and a protocol for a multicenter trial.
The device uses electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) to detect and diagnose oral cancer. Zilico's lead product, ZedScan, uses its proprietary EIS technology to detect dysplasia and cancer of the cervix. As oral cancer follows a similar neoplastic pathway, EIS may be able to detect changes in the oral epithelium as cells progress from normal to precancerous and then to cancerous, the company said.
