Enhancements for Cervical Cancer Screening System

A next-generation cervical cancer screening system has been launched, the AutoPap GS system, that combines the features of the AutoPap primary screening system, including the archiving of up to 25% of processed slides, with a highly automated relocation system designed to facilitate the rapid review of targeted locations on nonarchived Pap smear slides.

The AutoPap GS System, from TriPath Imaging, Inc. (Burlingon, NC, USA), incorporates
the company's SlideWizard user interface and a motorized microscopic stage to direct the cytologist to fields of view determined by the AutoPap primary screener to most likely contain abnormal cells. The system supports the primary screening of TriPath's AutoCyte Prep liquid-based thin-layer preparation as well as conventional Pap smears.

"We believe that this is a very important product whose development responds directly to input from our customers,” noted Paul R. Sohmer, M.D., president and CEO of TriPath. The company develops and markets products to improve cancer screening. Its AutoCyte Prep system, an automated thin-layer cytology sample preparation system that produces specimen slides with a homogeneous thin layer of cervical cells, is one of only two sample preparation systems approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a replacement for the conventional Pap smear.