Protease Activity Sensing Probes For Early Detection and Prognosis of Pancreatic Cancer

Summary
The current technology is a liquid biopsy diagnostic screen for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), which is high throughput, requires very small blood volumes and has been validated in a large patient dataset. 

Technology Overview
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the deadliest cancers and is typically discovered by accident since there are few approved detection methods. Early detection of cancer through liquid biopsy diagnostics greatly improves patient prognosis and survival rates.  However, current detection of PDAC through evaluation of CA19-9 levels is less accurate for early stage PDAC and misses almost 20% of PDAC patients that do not express or release CA19-9 into circulation. 

The current technology is a novel liquid biopsy diagnostic for early diagnosis and prognosis of PDAC, which requires very small volumes and minimal sample processing.  Features of this PDAC diagnostic include:

• Detection of altered enzymatic activity associated with PDAC that is independent of cancer stage and CA19-9 levels.
• Demonstrated ability to detect PDAC with 98% specificity and 73% sensitivity and distinguish 100% of high-risk patients from PDAC patients in a blinded study of 356 patient samples.
• Small blood volumes potentially compatible with finger prick collections, increasing the potential patient pool by improving access and compliance.
• Compatibility with fresh or frozen serum allowing for flexibility in collection sites and storage.
• Minimal sample processing and rapid timing (<2 hours from start to finish).
• Direct comparison to CA19-9 assay demonstrated improved accuracy and sensitivity, and enhanced specificity for early stage PDAC detection when combined with the CA19-9 assay.

Licensing Opportunity
This technology is available for licensing.