Health Discovery Corporation (HDC) has entered into an agreement with the Pancreas, Biliary and Liver Surgery Center of New York at Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers in New York City to provide clinical specimens to be utilised to complete the final validation of HDC's molecular diagnostic test for colon cancer.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Pancreas, Biliary and Liver Surgery Center of New York will provide specimens from their collected specimen banks, as well as blood and tissue specimens on all new patients along with all associated clinical and outcomes data.
HDC owns all of the intellectual property and commercialisation rights to the molecular diagnostic test for colon cancer and intends to partner with a large clinical laboratory for development, marketing and commercialisation of the new colon cancer test, as per the agreement.
In developing the new molecular diagnostic test for colon cancer, HDC employed the same discovery process that led to the urine-based prostate cancer test that is licensed for development and commercialisation to Quest Diagnostics and Abbott.
The company said that the test had demonstrated a 93% sensitivity and a 93% specificity in a previous validation study.
Stephen Barnhill, chairman and CEO of HDC, said: “We are excited about the results of our previous validation study and look forward to achieving the same success in this final validation. If we are successful in finding the molecular signature in blood as we were in tissue, HDC will have both a tissue-based colon cancer test to be used on biopsy specimens as well as a blood test which can be used as a screening test for colon cancer.”