Sahlgrenska University Hospital becomes first Swedish site to take part in early pancreatic cancer detection study

Dec 22 2017

Immunovia AB today announced that Sahlgrenska University Hospital is the first Swedish site to be part of PanFAM-1, a multicenter prospective validation study for the early diagnosis in familiar pancreatic cancer (FPC) high risk individuals. Designed to validate Immunovia ́s blood test, IMMray^TM PanCan-d, the study which started one year ago at Ramon y Cajal Institute for Health Research (IRYCIS) in Madrid, Spain, will analyze thousands of individuals for three years across sites in both the US and Europe offering FPC screening programs, and will open up the market and sales for testing hereditary pancreatic cancer patients.

“For 7 years, we have been conducting a surveillance program for familiar pancreatic cancer high risk individuals in our center,” says Svein Olav Bratlie, Head of the section for Pancreatic Surgery, at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. “It is obvious that early detection can lead to successful surgical intervention and consequently to better patient management. For this reason, an accurate, reliable and highly sensitive blood based test would be necessary. We are delighted to begin the prospective validation of IMMray^TM PanCan-d in Sweden as part of our surveillance program of familiar pancreatic cancer high risk individuals and we are looking forward to the results.”

“We are very pleased to work with Sahlgrenska University Hospital for PanFAM-1 clinical study. This collaboration will not only support the multicenter prospective validation of IMMray ^TM PanCan-d but will also play a critical role in providing us data and clinical evidence for regulatory and reimbursement application of the test in Sweden.“ commented Mats Grahn, CEO, Immunovia.

Pancreatic cancer continues to have one of the lowest survival rates of any major cancer type. It is widely acknowledged, that the key to improving prognosis and possible successful surgical intervention lies in early detection. Following years of research, Immunovia has developed the first blood based biomarker test to be validated in FPC high risk individuals undergoing annual screening for early pancreatic cancer detection.

The other PanFAM-1 partners to date are:  Mount Sinai in New York, Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, USA, the University of Liverpool, UK and Ramon y Cajal Institute for Health Research, Madrid, Spain. Immunovia is also in advanced discussions with several other high risk surveillance programs from Europe and USA about their participation.