VOLITIONRX LIMITED VolitionRx Limited has unveiled what it believes to be an entirely new cancer detection method at ESMO 20231, the annual congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology. In early-stage cancer, it is difficult to detect cancer-derived circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in the blood because it may comprise only 0.01% of the DNA present among a background of 99.99% normal DNA. Moreover, most of the cancer DNA has exactly the same sequence as normal DNA.
Volition's proof of concept data, presented at ESMO 2023, demonstrates the isolation of tumor derived ctDNA fragments from plasma. Volition tested the new method in a first small clinical experiment and detected a range of liquid and other cancers, including at early stage I disease. For example, 74% of leukemias were detected at 96% specificity and 77% of colorectal cancers were detected at 92% specificity with 2-qPCR assays.
