Largest ever study for diagnosing pancreatic cancer paves way for early intervention to significantly improve survival rates.
LUND, Sweden ― CREATE Health Translational Cancer Center, Lund, Sweden in collaboration with Immunovia today announced that they have completed a retrospective study demonstrating that the IMMray™ PanCan-d test is able to differentiate with 96% accuracy patients with early resectable stages of pancreatic cancer, stage I and II, from the healthy controls. When analyzing all stages of pancreatic cancer, the accuracy of Immunovia´s test is reported as high as 98%. The study covered 1400 blood samples, making it the largest study for diagnosing pancreatic cancer in all stages.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly and difficult to detect and diagnose cancers, as the signs and symptoms are similar to many other diseases. There are more than 40,000 deaths and over 50,000 new cases diagnosed each year in the U.S. alone, and the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is currently 4-6%. It is predicted to become the second leading cause of cancer death by 2020. Early detection is, however, the key to significantly improving pancreatic cancer patients’ 5-year survival rates from 4-6% to potentially 50-60%.
Prof. Carl Borrebaeck, the main investigator of the study and one of the founders of the CREATE Health Cancer Centre said:
“We have already seen in previous studies performed on over 1 000 pancreatic cancer blood samples that the IMMray™ PanCan-d biomarker signature is highly specific and sensitive for stage III and IV patients. The results from this new very large study are extremely encouraging due to the large number of early stage patient samples. Having an accuracy as high as 96% on a study of 149 samples of stage I and II patients and 700 matched healthy controls clearly shows that our biomarker signature is able to detect the asymptomatic early stage patients when the cancer is still resectable by surgical methods. This also validates our previous study performed in China at Tianjin Hospital and Cancer Institute.”
The test used in this study is based on Immunovia’s core technology platform called IMMray™. This leading edge technology combines widely recognised clinical immunoproteomics research expertise from Lund University with unique serum protein biomarker signatures for a variety of major diseases and state-of-the-art bioinformatics algorithms and interpretation software. Each blood sample is analyzed and characterized using a disease-specific antibody microarray targeting a multiplex panel of biomarkers. A simple blood test provides all the necessary information for enabling early diagnosis, as well as for following disease progression, and/or therapy monitoring.
Mats Grahn, CEO Immunovia concluded:
“We now have a strong confirmation that IMMray™ PanCan-d is able to detect pancreatic cancer in all stages, even in stage I and II. These very encouraging results provide us with confidence to perform the next large pancreatic cancer study that will be conducted by Immunovia in collaboration with Dr. Brian Drucker and his team at Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, USA. Together, we are aiming to make a significant difference in pancreatic cancer patients’ lives and improve their chances of survival.”
Note: This press release presents expanded data analysis and results that confirm the information already presented in Immunovia´s prospect.
About CREATE Health CREATE Health is a Strategic Centre for Translational Cancer research mainly located at Medicon Village in Lund. The Centre is funded mainly by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and VINNOVA. By integrating clinicians and researchers from Lund University Hospital with researchers from the Faculties of Medicine, Natural Sciences and Engineering using a superbly equipped and integrated “omics” platform, concentrated in a single area, a centre unique in its kind has been created. The vision of CREATE Health is to use an integrative approach to develop novel diagnostics and therapeutics, based on identified markers and molecular signatures and to create a substantial social impact for the patient, through direct application of research for selection of an optimal, individually-based, cancer treatment.
About Immunovia Immunovia AB was founded in 2007 by investigators from the Department of Immunotechnology at Lund University and CREATE Health, the Center for Translational Cancer Research in Lund, Sweden. Immunovia’s strategy is to decipher the wealth of information in blood and translate it into clinically useful tools to diagnose complex diseases such as cancer, earlier and more accurately than previously possible. Immunovia´s core technology platform, IMMray™, is based on antibody biomarker microarray analysis. The company is now performing clinical evidence validation studies for the commercialization of IMMray™ PanCan-d that could be the first blood based test for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. (Source: www.immunovia.com)
Immunovia’s shares (IMMNOV) are listed on Nasdaq First North in Stockholm and Wildeco is the company’s Certified Adviser. For more information, please visit www.immunovia.com.
Particulars Carl Borrebaeck, Prof., is currently the Director of CREATE Health, a Translational Cancer Center at Lund University; chairman of the Department of Immunotechnology and the previous Vice-President of Lund University, Sweden (responsible for its Innovation systems). He is the President of the Board of Directors and one of the founders of Immunovia.
Brian Druker, M.D., is director of the Oregon Health & Science University Knight Cancer Institute, associate dean for oncology in the OHSU School of Medicine, JELD-WEN Chair of Leukemia Research at OHSU, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.
For more information please contact:Mats Grahn, CEO Immunovia ABTel: +46-70-5320230Email: mats.grahn@immunovia.com
Immunovia ABMedicon VillageScheelevägen 2SE-223 81 Lund
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