Preliminary study for detection of pancreatic cancer shows encouraging results

OTraces, Inc., a molecular diagnostics company specializing in early cancer detection, has announced completion of a preliminary study for detection of pancreatic cancer. Biomarkers for pancreatic cancer were selected from a survey of relevant proteins that are active in the Tumor Microenvironment (TME), and they have shown:

• From a survey of 33 TME active proteins, 5 were selected for the test panel;
• Sensitivity was 98% (less than 2% false negative);
• Specificity was 98% (less than 2% false positive).

The data were measured at the Luminex Core Lab at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, under the supervision of Anna Lokshin, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Hematology Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh.   Dr. Lokshin has extensive research experience in cancer biomarkers used for screening, diagnosis, and prognosis, with emphasis on biomarkers of ovarian and pancreatic cancers.

According to Brian Leyland-Jones, PhD who recently joined OTraces as Chief Medical Officer, "Professor Charles Swanton and others have delineated challenges associated with the use of ctDNA as a routine screening tool. OTraces represents an orthogonal approach focused on detection of specific TME proteins, on the same assay platform used in every clinical chemistry laboratory in the country. Our aim is high specificity, high sensitivity and incorporation of the OTraces test into the same tube of blood used for the patient's annual examination."

We now have a sixth cancer indication to add to our list of candidates for an accurate and affordable multi-cancer screening test, along with breast, prostate, lung, ovarian and melanoma. We seeks collaboration(s) with established companies in the drug and diagnostics field to develop screening and special-purpose tests."

Keith Lingenfelter, CEO and Founder, OTraces

OTraces' technology is showing promise in the early detection of minimal residual disease, as well as in diagnosing tumor progression and immune status in a blood test, non-invasively and in real-time.  This has been demonstrated in validation pre-clinical trials for breast and prostate cancers and now, OTraces has validated non-small cell lung cancer, ovarian, melanoma and pancreatic cancer as well.

OTraces molecular diagnostics platform is directed towards early detection of potentially multiple cancers in an annual physical examination screening test at the lowest possible price, as well as monitoring cancer patients for disease progression and immune status. Our third-party blinded validation studies have shown that we can detect cancers as early as stage 0 as proven in breast cancer validation.