NEW YORK – Imidex, a medical device company advancing AI imaging for lung nodule and mass detection, and DNA sequencing firm Orbit Genomics said Tuesday that they have entered a strategic relationship aimed at detecting lung cancers at early, more treatable stages.
Imidex's US Food and Drug Administration-cleared VisiRad XR device applies artificial intelligence to X-ray imaging of the chest, a more scalable procedure than the CT scans currently recommended for screening high-risk individuals.
The company believes its platform could allow it to be a "front-end solution," identifying suspicious masses incidentally, in a broader population, and referring more individuals to follow-up tests.
Under the collaboration, Orbit Genomics will have the ability to validate its OrbiSeq-L in patients with lesions found by the Imidex platform. OrbiSeq-L is a blood-based sequencing assay that uses AI to analyze repetitive DNA sequences that reflect genome instability to diagnose lung cancer in patients with indeterminate lung nodules.
Although OrbiSeq has applications beyond cancer, the company is currently focused on lung cancer diagnosis, preparing for clinical trials in individuals with nodules detected by CT scans. Access to the Imidex-detected population would add another potentially larger cohort in which to test its assay.
"By leveraging chest X-ray, we have the ability to opportunistically identify millions more patients with pulmonary nodules that are unwilling or not qualified to get a low-dose radiation CT scan," Imidex CEO Wes Bolsen said in a statement.
Dede Willis, president and CEO of Orbit Genomics, added that the strategic relationship is a "natural formation" for the two companies, which share the goal of improving lung cancer outcomes and survival.