Shares in Cizzle Biotechnology Holdings PLC (LSE:CIZ) leapt 13% to 1.82p after the UK cancer diagnostics developer said its CIZ1B biomarker assay has been selected by the Florida-based Moffitt Cancer Center for clinical evaluation to help patients with suspicious lung nodules.
Moffitt is in the midst of a large phase-two study testing the use of biomarkers for diagnosis and risk stratification of post-treatment recurrence and long-term survival of lung cancer patients with suspicious undiagnosed lung nodules seen in early-detection clinics.
Cizzle's new commercial monoclonal antibody will be used for the first time to analyse patient blood samples to determine biomarker accuracy in predicting whether or not a nodule is likely to be cancer.
The blood sample tests for CIZ1B will be conducted in Professor Dawn Coverley's laboratory at the University of York.
Cizzle said it was selected after a scientific review by Moffitt and its partnership in the USA with Cizzle Bio Inc., with the first new monoclonal antibodies to be delivered shortly by commercial manufacturing partner BBI Solutions.
On signing of the full agreement with Cizzle Bio a US$300,000 advance royalty fee will be paid to the London-listed company, which noted that more clinical collaborations are planned by Cizzle Bio in the USA.
Moffitt Cancer Center director Dr Lary Robinson said: "The only current, proven way to find lung cancer early is with low-dose screening chest CT scans for individuals considered high risk. But, unfortunately, we have only been able to get 6% of people at risk to obtain this scan.
"However, even with chest CT scans, at least 25% of patients will be found to have a lung nodule. The majority of these are false positive results, that nevertheless require careful evaluation, often invasive tests, and long-term follow-up.
"Development of a reliable, highly accurate blood biomarker for the discovery of early-stage lung cancer would be a tremendous advancement and would be far easier to implement in the routine clinical setting....I am hopeful that the CIZ1B biomarker will prove to be that much-desired lung cancer diagnostic test."