LUND, Sweden, and Ann Arbor, USA ― Immunovia AB is pleased to announce that the University of Michigan Pancreatic Cancer Center has become the most recent member of the global network of prominent sites participating in the PANFAM-I prospective clinical study for the early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in high risk individuals.
Designed to validate Immunovia ́s blood test, IMMrayTMPanCan-d, the study will run for three years across clinical sites in both the US and Europe that are highly competent in screening programs of high risk pancreatic cancer patients.
Pancreatic cancer has one of poorest survival rates of any major cancer type. The key to improve prognosis lies in early detection. Immunovia has identified the first blood based biomarker test that now will be validated in high risk individuals undergoing annual screening for early pancreatic cancer detection.
Working closely with several of the most prominent pancreatic cancer authorities, Immunovia identified three main criteria for the enrolment of the sites participating in the multisite prospective study. Michigan meets all three: broad patient reach, world renowned clinical expertise in oncology and a dedicated program for pancreatic cancer. The University of Michigan Pancreatic Cancer Center is renowned for its unique collaborative approach and has the largest number of dedicated, interdisciplinary pancreatic cancer researchers in the US. The Centre was also the first to identify the pancreatic cancer stems cells responsible for disease dissemination This has led to a longstanding interest in early detection and surveillance.
Under the present agreement, the University of Michigan Pancreatic Cancer Center will contribute together with the other sites to the development of the prospective clinical study that will follow up 1000 high risk study subjects over a period of three years.
“As pioneers in familiar pancreatic cancer programs, the University of Michigan Pancreatic Cancer Center has long seen the need for early diagnosis and effective surveillance of high risk individuals. They have also been strong supporters of our work to date and we are therefore delighted to welcome them as members of the PANFAM-1 study,” commented Mats Grahn, CEO, Immunovia.
Diane Simeone, M.D, Director University of Michigan Pancreatic Cancer Center, added: “Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive and difficult neoplastic disease to diagnose. Through our high-risk surveillance programs, we have shown that early diagnosis is the only way to improve patient survival rates and patient management during pancreas cancer. Immunovia´s test has the true potential to provide early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and I am looking forward to supporting such a large prospective validation study and to working together with the other centers to demonstrate its clinical value.”
Other partners that are already included in PANFAM-1 are Mount Sinai in New York and Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, USA, IRYCIS, Madrid, Spain and the University of Liverpool, UK. Immunovia is also in discussion with several other high risk surveillance programs from Europe and USA to add them to the participant list of PANFAM-1.
For more information, please contact:
Mats Grahn
Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Immunovia
Tel.: +46-70-5320230
Email: mats.grahn@immunovia.com
About Immunovia
Immunovia AB was founded in 2007 by investigators from the Department of Immunotechnology at Lund University and CREATE Health, the Center for Translational Cancer Research in Lund, Sweden. Immunovia’s strategy is to decipher the wealth of information in blood and translate it into clinically useful tools to diagnose complex diseases such as cancer, earlier and more accurately than previously possible. Immunovia´s core technology platform, IMMray™, is based on antibody biomarker microarray analysis. The company is now performing clinical validation studies for the commercialization of IMMray™ PanCan-d that could be the first blood based test for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. In the beginning of 2016, the company started a program focused on autoimmune diseases diagnosis, prognosis and therapy monitoring. The first test from this program, IMMray™ SLE-d, is a biomarker signature derived for differential diagnosis of lupus, now undergoing evaluation and validation. (Source: www.immunovia.com)
This information is information that Immunovia AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above.
Immunovia’s shares (IMMNOV) are listed on Nasdaq First North in Stockholm and Wildeco is the company’s Certified Adviser. For more information, please visit www.immunovia.com.
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