Oncimmune Holdings PLC (LON:ONC) said two scientific abstracts based on evidence gleaned from a large-scale trial provided further supportive evidence for the use of its EarlyCDT Lung blood test in screening for cancer.
The first abstract assessed the cost-effectiveness of using the immunodiagnostic company’s breakthrough to triage patients into CT scanning.
The conclusion was that the Oncimmune screen method was indeed value for money “excluding the additional costs of lung cancer treatment and enhanced survival from earlier detection”.
The abstract was entitled: ‘Cost-effectiveness of a blood test, plus imaging, to screen for lung cancer in high-risk individuals: the Early detection of Cancer of the Lung Scotland (ECLS) trial’.
The presentation of data from the Early detection of Cancer of the Lung Scotland (ECLS) trial was made virtually to The European Health Economics Association last month.
A second abstract, to be made to the Society for Academic Primary Care next summer, revealed that patient assessment using EarlyCDT test “does not appear to have a long term negative psychological impact on patients”.
The submission is entitled simply: ‘What is the psychological impact of lung cancer screening using a novel antibody blood test?’
"Beyond proving the ability of the EarlyCDT Lung blood test to detect cancer earlier in a screening population, it is also important to assess the negative impacts of using the test in the population, and the costs of implementing the diagnostic,” Oncimmune chief executive Adam Hill said in a statement
“These findings will no doubt assist our ongoing commercial discussions with health authorities in the UK and in other territories, and we look forward to the peer-reviewed publications in due course."
Last week Oncimmune said The European Respiratory Journal - a leading lung disease-focused scientific publication and flagship journal of the European Respiratory Society - had published the peer-reviewed results from the ECLS trial.
EarlyCDT-Lung was used in the largest-ever trial for the early detection of lung cancer using biomarkers that screened more than 12,000 high-risk smokers in Scotland.
The company’s test was used alongside x-rays and CT scans to check for the killer disease and the approach proved successful in picking up lung cancer at an earlier stage.
The study was delivered by the Universities of Dundee and St Andrews with NHS Tayside, and co-funded by Oncimmune, the Scottish Chief Scientist Office and the Scottish Government.