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Disease areas

Cancer

We are working on epigenetic solutions to help detect, guide treatment, and monitor cancer.

cancer patient
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Cancer

DIsease

Cancer is a devastating disease that touches many peoples’ lives, accounting for approximately 10 million deaths worldwide each year.

 

Overview of Cancer

Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally and exerts an enormous burden on families, communities, and health systems. Survival rates are improving in countries with strong health systems, thanks to advances in cancer detection and treatment. However, access to timely diagnostics and therapies remains limited for cancer patients in low and middle-income countries.

    • Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide.
    • Lung cancer causes 1.8 million deaths each year.
    • The most common types of lung cancer are non-small cell carcinoma and small cell carcinoma.
    • Screening high-risk individuals could dramatically improve survival rates.
    • Ovarian cancer is the 8th most common cancer in women worldwide.
    • There are approximately 300k ovarian cancer cases and 200k deaths each year.
    • There is no ovarian screening exam to detect it in its earliest stages.
    • Ovarian cancers are often advanced at diagnosis.
    • Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma is a type of cancer that forms in the lymph system.
    • There are approximately 545k new cases and 260k deaths each year.
    • Survival rates are improving in high-income countries but remain variable globally.
    • Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in the elderly represents a substantial disease burden.
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Challenges

While there have been welcome advances in early cancer detection of some cancers through screening, such as lung cancer, methods such as Low Dose Computed Tomography have a high level of false positives, resulting in the need for a follow-up biopsy. Biopsies are commonly used to detect cancer but are invasive, time-consuming, and expensive.

Medical imaging is the current standard for disease and treatment monitoring, but some scanning methods can be costly, time-consuming and low in sensitivity. Similarly, Next Generation Sequencing is used for treatment selection and monitoring, but can also be a lengthy, expensive and complex process.

Our Solutions

We are currently investigating the potential use of Nu.Q® assays in a range of cancers and clinical settings.

Research

Read our latest research papers and developments with Nu.Q® Cancer.

ELCC 24 nucleolung

Baseline values of circulating nucleosomes in Lung Cancer: N…

Poster & Publications
cnaps thumbnail mrd

Improve Molecular Residual Disease monitoring by combining c…

Poster & Publications
Biomolecules H3K27 thumbnail

Circulating H3K27 Methylated Nucleosome Plasma Concentration

Poster & Publications
Cancer Circulating H3K27 meth thumbnail

Circulating H3K27 methylated nucleosome concentration in lun…

Poster & Publications
Cancer circulating H3K27 nucleosomes thumbnail

Circulating H3K27 nucleosomes to monitor lung cancer patient…

Poster & Publications

Our Nu.Q® Cancer pillar encapsulates a range of simple, cost-effective blood-based assays for cancer, utilizing our patented Nucleosomics™ technology which isolates circulating nucleosomes from the blood for quantification and analysis.

Nu.Q® Cancer can detect characteristic epigenetic changes in nucleosomes that occur from the earliest stages of cancer and has potential applications beyond cancer detection. Being able to use epigenetic information from the nucleosomes of tumor cells could help physicians predict treatment response for each patient, monitor treatment response and disease progression, and take action as soon as possible if changes need to be made.

Nu.Q® Cancer could also play a pivotal role in Minimal Residual Disease Monitoring – to quantify and monitor the small number of cancer cells left in the body after cancer treatment, which have the potential to cause relapse.

In addition, we have developed a novel method for liquid biopsy involving the first reported physical isolation of a class of tumor-derived ctDNA fragments from blood. Our breakthrough method obviates expensive, time-consuming DNA sequencing and bioinformatics – allowing for rapid, cost-effective detection in a routine blood test.

Nu.Q® CancerNu.Q® Cancer Novel Cancer Detection Method
African Woman at a Medical Appointment
African Woman at a Medical Appointment
Resources

Brochure & Clinical Papers

Nu.q Cancer brochure 1

Nu.Q® Cancer Brochure

Media & Downloads
Cancer Circulating H3K27 meth thumbnail

Circulating H3K27 methylated nucleosome concentration in lun…

Poster & Publications
Cancer circulating H3K27 nucleosomes thumbnail

Circulating H3K27 nucleosomes to monitor lung cancer patient…

Poster & Publications
cnaps thumbnail mrd

Improve Molecular Residual Disease monitoring by combining c…

Poster & Publications
Biomolecules H3K27 thumbnail

Circulating H3K27 Methylated Nucleosome Plasma Concentration

Poster & Publications
naturescientificreports2023 feature 1

Epigenetic profiles of elevated cell free circulating H3.1 n…

Poster & Publications
ASCO 2020 NHL Circulating nucleosomes featured

Circulating nucleosomes in hematological malignancy

Poster & Publications
ASCO GI 2022 featured

Circulating nucleosomes for Detection of Colorectal Cancer a…

Poster & Publications

Next steps

Talk to a specialist.

Please contact our expert team for further information.

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Sepsis

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