Oncimmune enters collaboration with Siemens Healthineers

17th Feb 2023 15:53

(Sharecast News) - Immunodiagnostics specialist Oncimmune announced a collaboration with Siemens Healthineers on Friday, to improve malignancy risk assessment of indeterminate pulmonary nodules (IPNs).

The AIM-traded company said the partnership would combine its 'EarlyCDT Lung' blood test with Siemens Healthineers' 'AI-Rad Companion Chest CT', an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered radiology assistant designed to help radiologists in automatic post-processing, quantifying, and interpreting data.

It said the aim of the collaboration was to improve the early detection of lung cancer, and enhance clinical outcomes by providing better risk assessment of IPNs.

The partnership would access data from the Early Detection of Cancer of the Lung Scotland (ECLS) trial - a large, randomised study into the utility of EarlyCDT Lung in asymptomatic screening.

Oncimmune said the collaboration would leverage the data to improve the accuracy of IPN malignancy risk assessment, which could have a significant impact on the early detection of lung cancer.

"If lung cancer is detected early when it doesn't yet cause symptoms, the chances for curative treatment to work are good: the average five-year survival rate for the earliest stage of the disease can be as high as 90%," said chief executive officer Dr Adam Hill.

"Oncimmune's easy-to-use EarlyCDT Lung blood test has proven utility in successfully triaging patients with cancerous nodules into early intervention.

"It is our hope that combining this test with Siemens Healthineers' AI-Rad Companion Chest CT will improve diagnostic accuracy in those patients with more difficult to diagnose lung cancer."

At 1413 GMT, shares in Oncimmune Holdings were up 4.47% at 55.89p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.