Edison Themes: VolitionRx – Decoding the DNA of cancer

Curative therapies work best when administered early. Imagine therefore the benefits of a simple blood test that can detect cancer even before the first physical symptoms appear. Termed liquid biopsies, these tests have proved their mettle in disease monitoring and as companion diagnostics but their potential in early cancer screening remains to be unlocked. A possible roadblock is the need to enlist next-generation sequencing (NGS), to optimize sensitivity and specificity, which may make these tests, when positioned as mass-market diagnostics, too expensive, both for patients and payors. VolitionRx, a diagnostics company focused on epigenetics, is working on a solution that claims to physically isolate circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) from background noise (no need for NGS), making for a convenient, fast and cost-effective test. Initial proof-of-concept data from a leukemia model have been encouraging, although significant clinical work is still required. Nevertheless, we see enough potential to warrant keeping an eye on the test’s development pathway.