Pharus Diagnostics LLC. (PharusDx), an innovator in non-invasive diagnostic tests, today announced a landmark in the world’s fight against pancreatic cancer.
According to certain reports, the stated milestone translates to the introduction of its OncoSweep™ Pancreas Spotlight, which happens to be a liquid biopsy screening test that aids the detection of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) in people with elevated risk. More on the same would reveal how the given test leverages a simple blood sample, next-generation sequencing, and a proprietary machine learning pipeline to analyze levels of microRNA and CA19-9 biomarkers.
In case you weren’t aware, PDAC is an aggressive form of cancer with a substandard prognosis. You see, making the disease a tricky condition to tackle is its location within the body and lack of early symptoms. Due these two factors, the disease is often diagnosed at an advanced stage, thus significantly reducing survival rates. In fact, most PDAC is detected at stage IV when there is just a 3% five-year survival rate.
As for the people who are at risk of contracting this disease, they include the ones suffering from Lynch syndrome, Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, new-onset diabetes (after 50 yrs old), pancreatic cysts, chronic pancreatitis, certain mutations in BRCA1/2, PRSS1, ATM, TP53, those with first degree relatives, as well as those with certain lifestyle risk factors such as smoking, alcohol abuse, or obesity.
To understand the significance of having a cutting-edge diagnostic system, we must take into account that, if the disease is caught at stage I, the five-year survival jumps to over 40%, a greater than 10-fold increase.
“We have been hard at work validating our pancreatic cancer miRNA biomarker panel and have now completed CLIA LDT validation of our test, an exciting milestone for the company and people at-risk who have limited options for early detection of this devastating disease,” said Philip Huang CEO of PharusDX Diagnostics.
Markedly enough, the stated development delivers a rather interesting follow-up to PharusDx entering into an exclusive global licensing agreement, back in January 2024, with City of Hope. In case you weren’t aware, City of Hope is one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations across United States. The organization’s Los Angeles comprehensive cancer center is also ranked among the nation’s top 5 cancer centers, by U.S. News & World Report, for a proprietary panel of microRNA (miRNA) biomarkers with testing data demonstrating potential value for early detection of PDAC.
In response, OncoSweep™ Pancreas Spotlight builds on this biomarker panel and approach from City of Hope, transitioning the academic findings into a Laboratory Developed Test (LDT). All in all, the technology banks upon PharusDx’s OncoSweep™ liquid biopsy platform and City of Hope’s groundbreaking early cancer detection research led by Dr. Ajay Goel, Chair of City of Hope’s Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics.
Among other things, we must mention that the development of LDT, in conjunction with PacificDx (a CLIA-accredited laboratory) in Irvine, California, aligns with PharusDx’s commitment to advancing early cancer detection. In essence, thanks to its approach of offering simple blood test for PDAC, the company makes it possible for individuals at risk for the disease to undergo regular monitoring to detect early-stage disease when they have the most options for treatment.
“We are thrilled to bring this potentially life-saving technology developed by PharusDx, based on translational research findings from City of Hope, to market,” said Bowei Lee, Chairman of PharusDx. “An accurate early detection tool can significantly improve outcomes for people with PDAC, particularly when surgical intervention remains a viable option.”
