T-Ray previously announced it had obtained the rights to the device for skin cancer, all gastrointestinal tract cancers and cervical cancer. 

"While our skin cancer detector will be our first device to market, securing the rights to lung cancer detection is important because of the prevalence of lung cancer, which is the number one cause of all cancer deaths," said Thomas Braun, CEO. "A lung cancer detector will be our second product to market." 

The lung cancer detection device developed by the BC Cancer Agency has been clinically tested on more than 50 patients with excellent results. The study was done by the BC Cancer Agency in collaboration with the Lung Centre at Vancouver General Hospital. 

The optical biopsy system, known as the Verisānte Core series, detects spectral bio-markers for cancer. Today, once a doctor spots a lung lesion, it must be surgically biopsied for a full pathology report to determine if it is malignant. However, the Verisānte Core device determines with exceptional accuracy if a lesion is malignant or benign. Through this quick and non-invasive verification process, the Verisānte Core device prevents unnecessary biopsies and the resulting stress and health-care risks and costs that accompany the biopsy procedure. 

"It is critically important to have an optical biopsy system such as the Verisānte Core device to help make informed surgical biopsy decisions, because endoscopists and surgeons do not want to take unnecessary biopsies of lung tissue. For optimum patient health, benign lesions should be left alone," said Dr. Stephen Lam, a co-inventor of the device. 

Dr. Lam, MD, FRCPC, is Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, chair of the Lung Tumour Group and leader of the Lung Cancer Prevention Program at the BC Cancer Agency, and a senior scientist in the Cancer Imaging Department of the BC Cancer Agency's Research Centre. He is a co-inventor of the award-winning LIFE-Lung, which is being used in more than 150 major medical centres worldwide to detect and localize pre-invasive lung cancers. 

Dr. Haishan Zeng, PhD and co-inventor of the Verisānte Core, is a senior scientist at the BC Cancer Agency's Research Centre and associate professor of dermatology and skin science at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Zeng is a consultant member of the T-Ray Science product development team. 

T-Ray earlier acquired technology from and is collaborating with the world renowned BC Cancer Agency, UBC Department of Dermatology and VGH Skin Care Centre, and will now collaborate with Dr. Lam and the equally renowned VGH Lung Centre. Their depth of clinical expertise and capability is key to bringing medical devices through regulatory approval and ultimately to the market so that patients have access to better health-care technologies. 

The Verisānte Core series for lung cancer detection and the Verisānte Aura series for skin cancer detection utilize a proprietary cancer detection technology platform developed by the BC Cancer Agency while the operating software and probe technology are unique to each device. This exclusive platform technology allows T-Ray to develop and offer a range of cancer detection devices for many of the most common cancers. 

Under the terms of the Agreement, T-Ray adds an exclusive worldwide right to use and sublicense the BC Cancer Agency's patented lung cancer detection technology to its original Licensing Agreement announced in July 2010. In return, the Company will pay BC Cancer Agency an increased annual royalty and will issue an additional 200,000 stock purchase warrants to BC Cancer Agency. The warrants shall have a term of five years and an exercise price of $0.18. The Agreement is subject to regulatory approval by the TSX Venture Exchange. 

www.bccancer.bc.ca