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Prostate cancer is the 2nd most frequent cancer in men with 1.4M new annual cases and nearly 0.4M deaths worldwide in 2020. Incidence of prostate cancer is expected to increase to 2.2M cases and 0.7M annual deaths by 2040. Statistic shows 1 of 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime.
Early cancer diagnostics is live saving.
Survival is proportional to the stage reached at the time of diagnosis – hence early-stage diagnostics is key to reduce mortality.
Prostate cancer symptoms are very similar to other benign conditions making accurate early-stage diagnostics challenging using currently available laboratory methods.
When the initial tests show a suspicious result, the patient is, in most cases, advised to undergo a biopsy to confirm the final result. The biopsy is painful, costly & it may cause permanent negative side effects for men. Up to 76% of biopsies are negative and potentially avoidable.
High accuracy of non-invasive diagnostics would significantly decrease the socioeconomic burden associated with avoidable biopsies.
Our aim is to clinically validate & register an affordable, non-invasive next-gen liquid biopsy prostate cancer diagnostic test with a accuracy of up to 90%.
It will the first test for early-stage of prostate cancer diagnosis based on glycan (complex carbohydrate) analysis in blood serum.
Glycanostics´s test will separate healthy men from men at risk of prostate cancer, who need a confirmatory biopsy.
The test detects a biomarker at a very low level using magnetic particles and a minimal amount of blood (10 uL, i.e. less than a single blood drop).
It’s organ spefic and it detects prostate cancer with up to 90% accuracy. The test is compatible with equipment commonly used for current clinical tests (ELISA-based) and with magnetic particle-based fully automated approaches used by industry diagnostic leaders..
Our pipeline
Our PCT patent covers potential diagnostics of 11 different types of cancer, including prostate, breast, lung, pancreas, stomach, thyroid, ovarian, testicular, bladder, liver and colorectal cancer. Following the out-licensing of the first product (prostate cancer diagnostic test) we plan to focus on breast, pancreas and lung cancer.
At Glycanostics, we have developed an early-stage, highly accurate and unique cancer diagnostic test.
Our patented technology for screening cancers detects changes in a glycan attached to a protein in the blood and covers possible diagnostics of eleven types of cancer. Cancer cells release increased levels of glycoproteins into the bloodstream. These glycoproteins, so-called biomarkers, are cancer antigens and are used in the detection of cancer from human blood. Minute amounts of serum are needed for testing. The Glycanostics testing technology is based on antibody-coated magnetic particles to selectively extract the desired biomarker from the serum. Finally the optical signal is generated in the event that the sample contains a biomarker produced by cancer cells.
In the first step, the serum with biomarker is added to the suspension of antibody-coated magnetic particles. The biomarker interacts strongly with the antibody bound to magnetic particles and is removed from the serum via a magnetic field. A microtiter plate modified with glycan-recognising biomolecules, so-called receptors, is used to create a sandwich: receptor+glycoprotein´s biomarker+Ab-coated magnetic particles. Within a very short time, a monolayer of magnetic particles is created and an optical signal is generated in the event that the sample contains a biomarker produced by cancer cells. Samples without the cancer-specific biomarker isoform remain clear.
| The Glycanostics test has the following unique characteristics |
| • it detects early-stage cancers that can be missed by imaging techniques |
| • it is affordable |
| • highly accurate |
| • it is fast and easy to work with |
| • minimally invasive |
| • it reduces the number of false-positive results which could lead to re-biopsies |
| • it is fully compatible with automatic equipment commonly used, and is potentially applicable to the screening of several different cancer types |
| • it is suitable for disease monitoring as it provides quantitative and qualitative information |
| • it is organ specific |
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men, counting 1,4 million new cases and causing nearly 0.4 million deaths in 2020.
Estimated number of new cases is expected to increase to 2,2 million cases, with 0.7 million annual deaths by 2040 [Globocan 2022].
Survival is proportional to the stage reached at the time of diagnosis – hence early-stage diagnosis is key to reduce mortality.
Prostate cancer symptoms are very similar to other benign conditions making accurate early-stage diagnostics challenging using currently available laboratory methods.
The biopsy needed to confirm Prostate Cancer is painful, costly & it may cause permanent negative side effects for men. Up to 76% of biopsies are negative and potentially avoidable.
The 2nd opinion, high accuracy test will separate healthy men from men at risk of prostate cancer, who need a confirmatory biopsy. High test accuracy can eliminate ~1.6M of avoidable biopsies worldwide annually.
