Sadly, 1 in 7 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some stage in their life. That’s 1 in 7 mothers, daughters, aunties, girlfriends, wives, friends and nieces.
In the last 10 years, breast cancer diagnosis has increased by 36% and remains the second most common cause of death from cancer among females.
Health professionals recommend bi-annual breast screening for women aged 50-74, however there is demand for a minimally invasive diagnostic test for the cancer to expedite diagnostic workflow and differentiate cancer subtypes quickly without biopsy.
BARD1 Life Sciences (ASX: BD1) is a diagnostics company with already commercialised testing solutions for cancer that is focused on developing non-invasive diagnostics for early detection of cancer.
The Company has developed and licensed a diagnostic blood test for breast cancer that, according to recent independent research, has performed well.
BARD1’s proprietary blood test integrates SubB2M technology. SubB2M is a unique cancer probe. The engineered protein binds to a unique biomarker found only on cancer cells and potentially has broad applications.
Researchers at Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics and the University of Adelaide have submitted a manuscript of their research into using SubB2M tech to detect different stages of breast cancer which will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
The results indicate that the test was able to detect all stages of breast cancer from blood samples with 100% specificity and over 95% sensitivity. The test was also able to differentiate between common and rare subtypes of cancer.
The study was supported by a grant from the US Department of Defense as well as MTPConnect’s Biomedical Translational Bridge (BTB) program. The program is facilitated by the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund which offers $1 million in matched funding to foster innovation and translation of new medical treatments, technology and devices.
The advent of a blood test for breast cancer detection could lead to commercial opportunities due to the demand for quick, easy testing solutions that offer early as possible detection to inform treatment and improve women’s overall health outcomes.
The Company plans to explore the commercial viability of their blood test for breast cancer diagnosis before expanding the indications for use.
BARD1’s pipeline includes diagnostic solutions for ovarian cancer and research stage projects for prostate and pancreatic cancer. The hTERT test for diagnosis of bladder cancer via urine is already marketed and commercialised by BARD1.
BARD1 Chief Science Officer. Dr Peter French said: “Once published, we expect that the manuscript will add to the mounting data supporting the use of SubB2M as a novel probe for detecting a range of cancers. SubB2M binds to the sugar Neu5Gc which is known to be a highly specific marker for cancer. BARD1 is working with Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics and the University of Adelaide to develop SubB2M alone and in combination with other tissue-specific cancer markers as highly specific tests for breast and ovarian cancers.”
Samantha Freidin is a business journalist at Emerald Financial whilst also completing a Masters of Marketing and Digital Communications at Monash University.
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