VolitionRx: 95% detection in new pancreatic study

A second study has validated VolitionRx’s (NYSE:VNRX) NuQ blood test as a way potentially to detect pancreatic cancer. The 4,800-subject cancer trial at Hvidovre Hospital in Denmark showed a 95% detection rate for the disease. Results were similar to a completely separate study of 59 individuals at Lund University in Sweden. It returned a 92% detection rate for pancreatic cancer cases. Hvidovre was a much larger study primarily aimed at detecting colorectal cancer but analysis of patients' blood samples demonstrated that a panel of two NuQ assays and cancer marker CEA (carcino-embryonic antigen) distinguished 95% of pancreatic cancer cases from healthy subjects at 84% specificity. Dr Jake Micallef, VolitionRx’s chief scientific officer, said the results were very encouraging especially as the study was not designed specifically for pancreatic cancer and the NuQ assays used were not tailored for its detection. “This substantiates the highly encouraging results from our previous pancreatic cancer trial that were recently published in the journal Clinical Epigenetics." Cameron Reynolds, chief executive, added: "We now have confirmation of pancreatic cancer detection at a very high rate in two completely different patient sets collected independently in different countries. “Moreover, this second patient set is a large sample set. These very encouraging results provide significant confidence to move forward with a large, dedicated pancreatic cancer study.” Pancreatic cancer is a deadly form of the disease and currently very difficult to diagnose early. It is projected to become the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the US by 2030.