LONDON (Alliance News) - Oxford BioDynamics PLC on Tuesday said it has signed an agreement for its EpiSwitch test to be used by Imperial College London in a prostate cancer screening trial.
Imperial College London is conducting its Prostagram study to assess multiple different methods for diagnosis, including MRI and ultrasound. Enrolment is currently underway and the college intends recruit 406 male participants between 50 and 69 years old.
Under the agreement, Oxford BioDynamics will evaluate study participants for prostate cancer using its EpiSwitch biomarker assay. This is a test that uses a blood sample to determine if a patient has prostate cancer.
Oxford BioDynamics cited research by Cancer Research UK that showed prostate cancer to be more of the most common causes of cancer death in men, killing more than 11,000 people per year with the life time risk of dying from prostate cancer currently at 4.3%.
Oxford BioDynamics Chief Scientific Officer Alexandre Akoulitchev said: "Participation in this important trial into prostate cancer is a significant milestone for Oxford BioDynamics. We are looking forward to contributing our EpiSwitch blood-based readouts to the comprehensive evaluation of these trial participants.
"We are delighted to join forces with a team of world-leading experts in prostate cancer, and looking forward to potentially improving the detection of prostate cancer at a curable stage by aiding in the development of prostate cancer screening programme."
Shares in Oxford BioDynamics were down 0.3% at 154.00 pence on Tuesday.
Oxford Biodyn (OBD)