A PIONEERING York company has secured new funding to develop technology which could offer earlier and more accurate detection and treatment of cancer.

Vistatec York, based in the Innovation Centre at the University of York Science Park, is working on technology which can both "see and treat" cancer using the same molecule.

The company was the first in the city to be started with money from the White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund (WRTSF), which invests in early stage opportunities emerging from the research work of the universities of York, Leeds and Sheffield.

Four years later, it has secured follow-on funding to take WRTSF backing to more than £400,000.

Vistatec's technology is based on the research of University of York bioinorganic chemistry expert, Professor Paul Walton.

His work at the forefront of molecular imaging has resulted in this new method of locating and diagnosing cancer, which harnesses the tumour-targeting properties of a protein called lactoferrin.

This protein is mixed with a radioactive metal label which is quickly taken-up by cancer cells and could enable whole body imaging to be carried out using a medical gamma camera, available in more than 19,000 hospitals worldwide, or a PET scanner.

Work to date shows that accurate images can be obtained within minutes, even with tumours as small as 2mm in diameter.

The development programme is now being extended to enable Vistatec's technology to be used to eradicate cancer cells immediately following their detection, using a highly-targeted form of radiotherapy to speed up tumour cell death without the need for surgery.

Updated: 10:23 Friday, July 09, 2004