WALTHAM,
Mass., April 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Mercy
BioAnalytics, Inc., a pioneer in extracellular vesicle-based liquid
biopsy for the early detection of cancer, will present data at the
2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting
showing the performance of its Mercy Halo™ Ovarian Cancer screening
test in a large cohort of asymptomatic, postmenopausal women. The
results of the study, which included more than 1,300 women, will be
shared in a poster presentation on June
3rd, 2024.
Ovarian cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death
among women. More than 70% of ovarian cancer is diagnosed in women
over 50 years of age, and nearly 80% of ovarian cancer is diagnosed
at an advanced stage of disease, when survival is poor. Today,
there are no guideline-recommended screening tests for ovarian
cancer, which kills nearly 13,000 women each year in the US
alone.
"Legacy technologies such as CA125 serum biomarker testing and
transvaginal ultrasound imaging have not proven accurate enough to
justify their use for population ovarian cancer screening.
Unfortunately, no alternative technology has demonstrated superior
clinical performance in a screening population since CA125 and
transvaginal ultrasound were introduced nearly four decades ago,"
said Dawn Mattoon, PhD, Mercy's
CEO.
Mercy is developing a highly sensitive and specific screening
test designed to help detect ovarian cancer earlier in
asymptomatic, postmenopausal women. Mercy analyzed samples from the
UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) in
which 200,000 women were enrolled, randomized to no screening or
annual screening, and followed for up to 20 years. All trial
participants donated a blood sample at the time of enrollment.
Mercy analyzed the blood of more than 1,300 trial participants to
assess the sensitivity and specificity of the Mercy Halo test for
detecting ovarian cancer up to three years prior to clinical
diagnosis.
"This study allowed us to see how far in advance of the
presentation of clinical disease our test can detect early-stage
ovarian cancer, and at what sensitivity and specificity," Mattoon
said. "We're excited to share the outstanding performance of the
Mercy Halo test in this large patient cohort that is representative
of our intended patient population."
The Mercy Halo test achieves high sensitivity and specificity
through the simultaneous detection of multiple cancer-related
biomarkers co-localized on the surface of individual
tumor-associated extracellular vesicles. The high abundance of
extracellular vesicles in circulation enables the Mercy Halo test
to be run on a very small volume of serum or plasma with a simple
qPCR-based read-out, unlike cell-free DNA-based tests which
typically require a larger volume of blood and next-generation
sequencing to generate results.
The Mercy ovarian cancer data will be shared on June 3rd in a poster titled "Evaluation of a
novel extracellular vesicle (EV) based ovarian cancer (OC)
screening test in asymptomatic postmenopausal women."
About Mercy BioAnalytics
Mercy BioAnalytics, Inc. is
on a mission to relieve suffering and save lives through the early
detection of cancer. Early-stage cancer is difficult to detect, but
when found, is more often amenable to curative therapy. The
patented Mercy Halo™ liquid biopsy platform utilizes biomarker
co-localization to interrogate highly abundant, blood-based
extracellular vesicles that carry unique cancer signatures from
their parent cells. The Mercy Halo platform is designed to detect
Stage I cancer, when it is most treatable, and enhance the quality
of life for cancer patients and their families. Mercy's initial
focus is the early detection of ovarian and lung cancers. Ovarian
cancer, the most lethal gynecological cancer, typically goes
undetected until it is too late to cure. Lung cancer, the
number-one cancer killer, takes more lives than breast and prostate
cancers combined.
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SOURCE Mercy BioAnalytics