Bladder cancer diagnostic

Benefits

• Non-invasive
• No pre-processing of urine sample required
• Significant improvement over current cytology approaches

Background

Bladder cancer is on average the 9th most common of all cancers, (the chance of developing bladder cancer is 1 in 27
for men and 1 in 89 for women), and the most expensive to treat from diagnosis to death because of its particularly high recurrence rate (<70%) and the associated patient life-long surveillance required.

The current gold standard for initial diagnostic and monitoring is cystoscopy. This procedure is costly and invasive, and therefore no preventive screening is offered to the general population. Early diagnosis is important as patient outcomes are much better for bladder cancer diagnosed locally in the bladder and having not penetrated the surrounding muscle (Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer) or to other parts of the body.

The current clinical and technical challenge is to develop a noninvasive, easy to implement, cost effective and accurate technique
capable of detecting early stages of bladder cancer and its recurrence.

Technology

Urine is a promising vector for noninvasive diagnostic as it contains both molecular and cellular cancer biomarkers. To date, tests developed to detect molecular biomarkers in urine haven’t had sufficient specificity to progress as a clinical diagnostic.

We have developed a test that uses a novel device to capture whole cancer cells from urine. Our device processes a urine sample from POC to cell analysis with minimal manual handling. The device incorporates a custom-designed microfluidic channel that has been coated with a novel plasma polymer coating which uniquely facilitates the covalent binding of bioactive capture antibodies. The cell capture device is designed to be used in conjunction with current microscopes for cell analysis.

Potential markets

This technology is relevant for the biomedical point of care diagnostic market.

IP status

Multiple patents have been filed and await examination.

Partnering opportunities

We are exploring licencing and codevelopment partnering opportunities.