Rhythm Biosciences (ASX: RHY) has obtained positive updates on its cancer diagnostics technology platform expansion program in lung cancer.
Together with the Baker Institute, Rhythm has identified a five biomarker combination that exhibits an effective correlation with various stages of lung cancer.
The preliminary assessment of 17 biomarkers was performed by the Baker Institute in a “research use only” feasibility immunoassay study to evaluate these blood-based biomarkers from 70 lung cancer patients and 71 healthy volunteers. This preliminary R&D has identified an important biomarker combination that can distinguish between patients with lung cancer and healthy controls, with >85% sensitivity and >90% specificity (P ≤0.00001).
The company believes these encouraging results warrant confirmation in a larger population and justify the continuation and advancement of the project. Therefore, verification of these results would support the case for investment in a new R&D programme to develop, validate, clinically evaluate the performance of the biomarkers, and translate these results into a commercially scalable, proprietary blood test to detect lung cancer early when it is most responsive to potentially curative treatments.
About Lung Cancer
Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, primarily because most people present when the stage is too advanced to offer any reasonable chance of cure.
Overall, the 5-year survival rate for lung cancer is low, at about 22% and there is a clear need to improve the diagnostic tools for screening in detecting early-stage lung cancer.
