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Oxford Cancer Analytics Leveraging $11M Funding to Build Out Lung Cancer Screening Test

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Lung Cancer

NEW YORK – UK-based startup Oxford Cancer Analytics is using the $11 million it has raised in a Series A financing to further develop and commercialize its protein-based lung cancer screening assay.

The firm hopes to launch the liquid biopsy assay in the next year for early detection of lung cancer, CEO Peter Liu said. Founded in 2020, the company is focused on the "proactive early detection of cancer," starting with lung cancer due to the high disease burden and because it is a particularly deadly cancer that can benefit from early detection, Liu said, noting that the firm has plans to expand into multi-cancer detection as well.

While many liquid biopsy tests detect circulating tumor DNA associated with tumor burden, Liu said that OXcan's team realized that for many cancers, the tumors do not shed a lot of DNA. As a result, the company looked at different biomarkers beyond DNA that may be suitable for cancer detection and decided to focus its efforts on proteins.

The team discovered novel undisclosed protein biomarkers that are particularly important for early detection of lung cancer and plans to publish a manuscript on those markers later this year. At its in-house proteomics facility, the company has "focused on how we can get the most number of proteins with the highest quality out of blood samples," Liu noted.

While it uses traditional mass spectrometry machines to conduct its tests, Liu said that the ways OXcan has calibrated its instruments and prepared its samples are proprietary and intended to detect the maximum number of proteins with high sensitivity. Its preparation techniques are focused on how the blood samples are processed to remove proteins that aren't essential to cancer detection.

It's "about processing the blood in a way to showcase these lower abundant proteins that are important for disease detection biomarker discovery," he said.

Liu added that some of the biomarkers included in the panel have been reported on previously but that there are completely novel biomarkers in the test, as well. The panel itself has been independently discovered within OXcan's research laboratory.

The assay also utilizes a machine-learning model the company has adapted for lung cancer specifically to return a molecular score that indicates whether someone has a high molecular risk of lung cancer. If a patient has a high risk of lung cancer as indicated by the test, they can continue down the "existing clinically indicated diagnostic pathway," but if they are low risk, they may be included in a screening program, Liu said.

The machine-learning model it has developed, called DEcancer, uses features selection methods and data augmentation with a variety of machine-learning classifier models. In a paper published in 2023 in iScience, DEcancer increased stage I cancer detection sensitivity across eight cancer types from 48 percent to 90 percent in a test set of 1,817 patients, 1,005 of whom had cancer.

The firm plans to launch its lung cancer assay as a laboratory-developed test in the US initially and is establishing a CLIA-certified laboratory, along with its existing laboratory in Oxford, Liu said. It does, however, plan to launch the test as a kit through the US Food and Drug Administration eventually, he added.

The company is also working with existing lung cancer screening programs in the US, UK, and European Union to validate its test, Liu said. The US and UK will serve as the "initial grounds for deployment" of the assay.

While many liquid biopsy companies have focused on multi-cancer detection or gastrointestinal cancers, Liu said OXcan chose lung cancer because there is a "clear need" for better detection. In addition, there is an existing screening modality for lung cancer — low dose CT scans — but uptake is "very poor" in the US. OXcan hopes a less invasive screening test could improve accessibility and help people who are currently not being screened receive screening, Liu said.

Geoffrey Liu, a medical oncologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre who is not affiliated with the development of the test or related to Peter Liu, said via email that while low-dose CT scans have helped improve patient outcomes and earlier detection, the uptake, scalability, and throughput need to be improved. OXcan's technology could be "game-changing when deployed because it can be highly accessible, affordable, and scalable for lung cancer detection at a global scale," he said.

The test can also integrate directly into existing clinical guidelines for high-risk populations, he noted.

OXcan's test isn't intended to replace the existing screening paradigms, Peter Liu noted, but rather to help improve them. However, the assay and its technology are scalable and could potentially be used for prognosis and therapeutic selection in the future, he added.

Geoffrey Liu said that other liquid biopsy tests for lung cancer typically focus on lung cancer subtyping and therapeutic determination rather than early detection. Other lung cancer detection liquid biopsy tests also suffer from lower sensitivity and specificity, he added.

Liquid biopsy tests for lung cancer are in development at a number of smaller diagnostic firms including UK-based Cizzle Biotechnology, which hopes to commercialize its blood-based immunoassay for lung cancer detection in 2025, and PrognomiQ, which closed a $34 million Series D financing round last year to advance development of its blood-based lung cancer early detection test. Epigenetics firm Volition is currently validating its Nu.Q lung cancer test that analyzes free nucleosomes to identify malignant lung nodules and hopes to get its assay included in Taiwan's national lung cancer screening program. Meantime, Delfi Diagnostics has commercialized its blood-based FirstLook Lung test in the US.