Clinical scientist Neil Atkey spent a year evaluating the various imaging systems on the market before deciding on Accord. “Now we intend to validate the system on a minimum of 100 cases to determine its level of concordance with analyses carried out by a manual system,” he said.
Accord is a semi-automatic scanning microscope and image analysis system that uses fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) to show if there are too many copies of the HER2 gene in samples of cancer cells. Roughly 25% of such cells carry the extra genes, which are associated with an increased risk of spread of the disease.
HER2-positive patients are most likely to benefit from treatment with Herceptin, a well-established and effective treatment when used both before and after surgery. It has also been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence after initial surgery.
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