University of Southampton Scientists Secured £2.5 Million Funding for Groundbreaking Cancer Blood Test Development
Scientists from the University of Southampton have been awarded £2.5m to continue their work on a revolutionary new cancer blood test to detect symptoms before they develop.
The test aims to detect 12 of the most lethal and common cancers at an early stage and has been hailed as a ‘game-changer’, with the potential to save millions of lives.
The blood-based, multi-cancer diagnostic test, called miONCO, has been developed by University of Southampton scientists Dr Andy Shapanis and Professor Paul Skipp , in collaboration with the charity Against Breast Cancer.
Dr Shapanis and Professor Skipp co-founded university spin-out company Xgenera to develop the test, with miONCO using a panel of biomarkers and artificial intelligence to identify 12 cancers simultaneously, across any stage, from a sample using just 10 to 15 drops of blood.
Government funding will now be used to improve the efficiency and evaluate the performance of the test.
Cancer survival rates are just 10 per cent when cancer is diagnosed at a late stage, but as high as 90 per cent when diagnosed at an early stage.
Professor Skipp said: “This test has the potential to save many lives by catching cancers much earlier than currently possible, making it a real game-changer.
“Only three types of cancer currently have available screening tests, and they can only test for one cancer at a time. These tests have a very high false positive rate, where patients are incorrectly told they have cancer when in fact, they don’t. As well as being incredibly stressful for them, this leads to expensive follow-up testing to confirm the diagnosis.
“This new test focuses on delivering a more comprehensive test that is both faster and more affordable, with the ultimate goal of making it available to the NHS and other healthcare providers.
“We are delighted to receive the funding we need to develop miONCO further.”
miONCO can test for the 12 most common types of cancer – lung, breast, prostrate, pancreatic, colorectal, ovarian, liver, brain, oesophageal, bladder, bone and soft tissue sarcoma, and gastric cancer.
The new study will analyse 8,000 samples drawn from a diverse cohort, ensuring the test’s efficacy across various genders, ethnicities, and backgrounds.
miONCO is one of six projects to receive almost £11m from NIHR’s Invention for Innovation (i4i) and the OLS Cancer Programme to support further testing of innovations to help increase the early detection and diagnosis of cancer.
The funding is part of a wider package of new schemes that will bring the power of the UK’s life sciences sector and the NHS to bear on tackling cancer and other life-threatening diseases with better treatments and faster diagnoses.
The MODERNISED study has also received £1.5m of funding and is being led by Andy Davies, Professor of Haematological Oncology at the University of Southampton and Director of the Cancer Research UK and National Institute for Health and Care Research Southampton Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre.
The trial will see samples taken from 1,000 cancer patients who are currently being treated on the NHS, as well as 350 control samples from symptomatic and healthy volunteers.
Both trials are being run by the Cancer Research UK Southampton Clinical Trials Unit.
Professor Mike Lewis, Scientific Director for Innovation at NIHR said: “Developing early diagnosis technologies that are closer to cancer patients is a key aim of this NIHR funding – the potential to find cancers earlier will give patients more choice of treatment, and enable us to save lives in the future.”
Xgenera has also received external investment from Qantx to further develop the test.