The research center Applied Medical (CIMA) of the University of Navarra has signed an agreementagreement of licence with the IIS La Fe, IDIBELL and the business Bemygene to commercialize an early diagnosis kit for lung cancer. The kit is the result of the research financed by FEDER funds and the high school de Salud Carlos III, the results of which have been published in the scientific journal Clinical Cancer Research.

Lung cancer is the most frequent tumor in the world subject . Nearly 30,000 new cases are detected in Spain each year. Due to its late clinical manifestation, most patients are diagnosed in advanced stages, when curative treatment is no longer possible. "Currently, cytology is the standard method for the diagnosis of this subject cancer, in minimally invasive respiratory samples, but it is a method with leave sensitivity. Our internationally patented system combines the epigenetic biomarkers of four genes and generates a personalized lung cancer probability value for each patient," explains Dr. Luis Montuenga, researcher senior of the Solid Tumors Program at CIMA, and member of IDISNA and CIBERONC. He is also part of the group of this research, directed by Dr. Juan Sandoval, from IIS La Fe, Valencia.

Thanks to the multicenter partnership minimally invasive epigenetic biomarkers have proven to be a promising tool for cancer diagnosis."The combination of this highly sensitive and specific epigenetic model together with standard clinical methods may help to improve the diagnosis of lung cancer and, therefore, decrease the current mortality rate," assures Dr. Rubén Pío, director of the Solid Tumor Program at CIMA and participant in the research.

According to the scientists at CIMA, "this diagnostic kit for lung cancer is highly reliable and allows diagnosis in cases where conventional techniques cannot be used. In addition, it is a minimally invasive and affordable test , so its use could be extended to routine hospital use".

The next step is the promotion of a clinical essay from IIS La Fe to evaluate its application in a real clinical environment.