Tiresias: Getting to Good News

“Convert bad news into good news."

Bill Gates

My friends,

The worst health news anyone can receive is that they have cancer. The second worst news, or even worse news still, is after they have had cancer surgery, hearing the statement “the cancer is back.” Of course, Tiresias’s friends know from Tiresias’s previous post, that the statement “the cancer is back”, is a furphy. The truth is the cancer was never removed fully in the first place. There is no doubt that the first shot of cancer is the best shot. The second shot is often a belated shutting the door after the horse as well and truly bolted. This is where Optiscan confocal laser endomicroscopy, (CLE), enabling real time, digital, AI-deep learning assisted histopathology comes into its own. This is where CLE is transformational. It will transform cancer screening and cancer diagnosis in the clinic. It will transform outpatient ambulatory cancer treatment, replacing procedures like Mohs surgery for skin cancers, which now takes all day, incurring exorbitant costs, and still not having the security of actual in-vivo imaging of cancer cells at the time of the actual surgery. Optiscan has application in all kinds of cancer, in the clinic for screening, diagnosis and treatment, and in the operating room for all cancer surgery. It will enable accurate intraoperative cancer margin assessment in complex tumours where millimetres can save vital tissue yet enable full resection of malignancy. It will enable intraoperative widefield screening of suspicious lesions without the need for repeated inaccurate flawed slow frozen section biopsies. Tiresias sees in future cancer surgery, after every cancer excision, no surgeon will close-up without screening the operative field for remaining cancer cells. At testing time in the markets, and in Optiscan’s share price, it is important to remind oneself of what Optiscan is all about. It's about cancer. It's about cancer screening. It's about cancer diagnosis. It's about replacement of frozen section biopsy. It’s about revolutionising cancer surgery. It's about real-time histopathology. It's about better results and saving of life and limb in cancer patients. Is there anything more important?