NYU School of Medicine joins PanFAM-1 prospective study for the early detection of pancreatic cancer in familiar risk groups
Using Immunovia’s innovative IMMrayTM PanCan-d, blood based test as its key tool, PanFAM-1 is the largest ever prospective multicenter study for early detection of pancreatic cancer in one of the main risk groups – families with a history of the disease. NYU School of Medicine is the latest center of excellence to join others across North America and Europe working to validate IMMrayTM PanCan-d.
LUND, Sweden, and New York, USA ― Immunovia AB today announced that NYU School of Medicine is to participate in PanFAM-1, the largest ever prospective study looking at early diagnosis in high-risk individuals with Familial Pancreatic Cancer (FPC). Designed to validate Immunovia ́s innovative blood test, IMMrayTM PanCan-d, the study will analyze more than thousand individuals over three years across sites in the US and Europe already offering FPC screening programs. The aim is to prove the overall healthcare benefits of testing hereditary pancreatic cancer patients. Parallel to this, Immunovia is also running studies for other newly identified high risk groups, such as early onset diabetics over 50 years of age and patients presenting with early symptoms, suggestive of pancreatic cancer. The recruitment to this outstanding network of cancer centers is expanding according to plan and is planned to end this year.
“We have long realized that family members to cancer patients comprise a high risk group for pancreatic cancer, but till now lacked accurate non-invasive early diagnostic tools. A test such as IMMray™ PanCan-d could make a huge difference, especially since surgical intervention at the early stages does improve survival rates significantly,” says Diane M. Simeone, MD, NYU School of Medicine and the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Professor of Surgery, Professor in the Department of Pathology, and Director of its Pancreatic Cancer Center. “In our screening program, we have a large number of individuals that could qualify for inclusion in this study and we are therefore very interested to join the PanFAM-1 study along with other colleagues around the world.”
“We are delighted that Professor Simeone and her team have joined PanFAM-1. She is without doubt one of the leading experts in pancreatic cancer and an authority surgeon in the field and her belief in the value of early diagnosis is highly encouraging. Our network of centers is expanding according to plan and we are on schedule to present interim results in 2019,” commented Mats Grahn, CEO, Immunovia.
The other PanFAM-1 partners to date are: Mount Sinai, New York; Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, OR; The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Pittsburgh, PA; The Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA; The University of Liverpool, UK; Ramon y Cajal Institute for Health Research Madrid, Spain; University Hospital of Santiago de Compostela, Spain and Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden. Advanced discussions over potential participation continue with several other European and US centers running high risk surveillance programs.
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)
Immunovia’s shares (IMMNOV) are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. For more information, please visit www.immunovia.com.
About Pancreatic Cancer
Pancreatic Cancer is one of the most deadly and difficult to detect cancers, as the signs and symptoms are diffuse and similar to other diseases. There are more than 40,000 deaths and over 50,000 new cases diagnosed each year in the U.S. alone, and the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is currently 5-8 %. It is predicted to become the second leading cause of cancer death by 2020. However, because resection is more successful in stage I/II, early diagnosis can significantly improve pancreatic cancer patients’ 5-year survival rates from 5-8 % to up to 49%.
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