Karolinska University Hospital welcomed as new site in expansion of Horizon 2020 project DeteCTCs
Stockholm, Sweden – April 18, 2023 – iCellate is excited to announce the expansion of the Horizon 2020 project, DeteCTCs, to Sweden with the addition of clinical site Karolinska University Hospital led by principal investigator Matthias Löhr. The DeteCTCs project is led in collaboration with QIAGEN and University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein.
iCellate, QIAGEN, and University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein were awarded 2.4 million euro from European Funding Agency, Horizon 2020 in February 2021. The ongoing project aims to make iCellate’s CTC platform CellMate® available to cancer centers and private clinics across Europe.
Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge is the third largest center for pancreatic cancer in Europe. By adding Karolinska as a clinical site the project team aims to increase enrollment, diversify the patient population, and expand CellMate®’s reach.
Pancreatic cancer has one of the worst prognoses compared to other cancer types. Symptoms are typically diffuse, and the tumor is often detected only after it has spread to other organs (roughly 80% of cases), at which point it is considered uncurable.
iCellate hopes that its circulating tumor cell (CTC)-based analysis, CellMate®, will help provide pancreatic cancer patients the right care at the right time – whether it be earlier cancer detection for a better chance at survival, particularly in high-risk groups, or to guide treatment selection.
iCellate’s early results in pancreatic cancer have far exceeded expectations, particularly in early-stage disease, suggesting that CellMate® may have a future role to play in early detection. Half a million people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year and up to 30-40% of patients could benefit from a CellMate® test to confirm tumor malignancy. CellMate® is easily repeatable and could be used throughout the course of treatment to monitor its effect.
- It will be very exciting to investigate whether CellMate® continues to perform as well in a larger patient population as it has in the initial data set. If it does, it will meet a large clinical need and hopefully improve outcomes for patients, says Professor Matthias Löhr.
About iCellate:
iCellate is a Swedish life science company founded in 2011 with its laboratory and office located in Stockholm. iCellate develops cancer diagnostic services across the cancer lifecycle, from hereditary cancer risk (GeneMate®) to early detection, treatment prediction and treatment monitoring (CellMate®). The technologies are based on research from the Karolinska Institute in collaboration with the Karolinska University Hospital.
About Department of Gynecologic Oncology:
The Department of Gynecolgic Oncology at the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Kiel is a certified Gynecologic Cancer and Breast Cancer Center treating over 100 gynecological and over 400 breast cancer cases each year. Its main research focus is translational research and clinical studies phase II-IV.
About IET:
The Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (IET) is an institution of the Medical Faculty of Kiel University and the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein Campus Kiel. The IET with its different research groups is a central interface in oncology between experimental and translational research as well as between laboratory and clinic. Moreover, IET hosts the oncological Biobank of the Comprehensive Cancer Center (BMB-CCC) comprising tissue samples and liquid biopsies from ~ 6500 patients along with comprehensive clinical data.
About QIAGEN:
QIAGEN is the global market leader in molecular diagnostics of cancer. QIAGEN are developing and providing oncology product in Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), including software for bioinformatic analyses. Furthermore, the company has unique assets for analysis and clinical interpretation of genetic variants in cancer patient samples.
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