Prospects rise for world's first national screening program.

STOCKHOLM and LUND, SWEDEN, Aug 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Immunovia AB today announced that the Karolinska Institutet is to participate in PanFAM-1, the largest ever prospective study looking at early diagnosis in high-risk individuals with Familial Pancreatic Cancer (FPC). Designed to validate Immunovia ́s innovative blood test, IMMray™ PanCan-d, the study will analyze more than thousand individuals over three years across sites in Sweden, the US and Europe already offering FPC screening programs. The aim is to improve the outcome for the cancer patients and to prove the overall healthcare benefits of testing persons with heredity for pancreatic cancer. In Sweden, the early participation of nearly all key centers raises the possibility of creating a national screening program. Parallel to this Immunovia is also running a study for another newly identified high risk group, new onset diabetics over 50 years of age. 

"When it has been possible to intervene early with surgery we have had been able to significantly raise survival rates in our clinic, as has been the case with our colleagues in the other sites involved in PanFAM-1," says PI Dr Urban Arnelo of the Pancreatic Surgery Unit, Division of Surgery, Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology (CLINTEC) Karolinska Institutet. "However, we still lack accurate, non-invasive early diagnostic tools and are now interested to participate in the study to see if IMMray™ PanCan-d could provide the answer."

 "We are delighted that Karolinska Institutet participates in the PanFAM-1 study for two reasons. Firstly this marks a major step forward as we aim to establish a national program for early detection of pancreatic cancer among major risk groups here in Sweden and secondly because of their worldwide reputation as a center of excellence in oncology," commented Mats Grahn, CEO, Immunovia.

The other PanFAM-1 partners to date are: Mount Sinai, New York; Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, OR; The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Pittsburgh, PA; The Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA; NYU School of Medicine, New York; The University of Liverpool, UK; Ramon y Cajal Institute for Health Research Madrid, Spain; University Hospital of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Clínica Universidad de Navarra, Spain; and Linköping University Hospital and Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg - both in Sweden. Advanced discussions over potential participation continue with several other European and US centers running high risk surveillance programs. 

About Immunovia 

Immunovia AB was founded in 2007 by investigators from the Department of Immunotechnology at Lund University and CREATE Health, the Center for Translational Cancer Research in Lund, Sweden. Immunovia's strategy is to decipher the wealth of information in blood and translate it into clinically useful tools to diagnose complex diseases such as cancer, earlier and more accurately than previously possible. Immunovia´s core technology platform, IMMray™, is based on antibody biomarker microarray analysis. The company is now performing clinical validation studies for the commercialization of IMMray™ PanCan-d that could be the first blood based test for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. In the beginning of 2016, the company started a program focused on autoimmune diseases diagnosis, prognosis and therapy monitoring. The first test from this program, IMMray™ SLE-d, is a biomarker signature derived for differential diagnosis of lupus, now undergoing evaluation and validation. (Source: www.immunovia.com)

Immunovia's shares (IMMNOV) are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. For more information, please visit www.immunovia.com.

About Pancreatic Cancer  

Pancreatic Cancer is one of the most deadly and difficult to detect cancers, as the signs and symptoms are diffuse and similar to other diseases. There are more than 40,000 deaths and over 50,000 new cases diagnosed each year in the U.S. alone, and the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is currently 5-8 %. It is predicted to become the second leading cause of cancer death by 2020. However, because resection is more successful in stage I/II, early diagnosis can significantly improve pancreatic cancer patients' 5-year survival rates from 5-8 % to up to 49%.

CONTACT:

For more information, please contact:

Mats Grahn

Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Immunovia

Tel.: +46-70-5320230

Email: mats.grahn@immunovia.com

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SOURCE Immunovia AB