CTI supports the development of a prostate cancer risk stratification test

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24.09.2014

The Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI) supports a research project for the development of a prognostic test to assess prostate cancer (PCa) aggressiveness with an overall budget of CHF 1.6 million (CTI contribution of CHF 738'809). The project group includes ProteoMediX AG as well as research groups from ETH Zurich (ETHZ), University Hospital Zurich (USZ) and the University of Applied Science North Western Switzerland (FHNW), Muttenz.

Worldwide approximately 900’000 men are diagnosed with PCa annually and 85% of these cancers are detected in men with early-stage disease. Most of these cases are non-aggressive and the cancer is localized and has not spread outside the prostate gland. Nevertheless, the majority of patients undergo immediate treatment such as prostatectomy and radiotherapy because of the lack of prognostic tools.

Overtreatment of PCa, the most prevalent cancer in men, is driving health care costs and bears risks for patients. The diagnostic tools developed by ProteoMediX will reduce overtreatment by providing urgently needed diagnostic tests that supports physicians in their therapy decision making (immediate treatment or active surveillance).

The goal of the interdisciplinary group of the CTI project including ProteoMediX and the research groups Prof. Dr. B. Wollscheid (ETHZ), Prof. Dr. med. P. Wild (USZ) and Prof. Dr. D. Gygax (FHNW) is to develop an immunoassay-based risk stratification test for the prognosis of patients diagnosed with localized PCa. The consortium will therefore further validate the prognostic potential of ProteoMediX’ proprietary biomarkers.

ProteoMediX AG is a privately held diagnostic company that was founded in March 2010 as a spin-off company from ETH Zurich. ProteoMediX enables personalized medicine by developing non-invasive diagnostic tests to detect and assess the prognosis of cancer, as well as to match patients with safer and more effective therapies. The first products are focusing on prostate cancer, the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men, where neither the detection nor the effective treatment is currently guaranteed. ProteoMediX owns the exclusive commercial rights on a set of protein-based biomarkers that were discovered with state-of-the-art proteomics technology developed at the ETH Zurich. These biomarkers are directly linked to the origin of cancer on a molecular level and allow to capture the complexitiy of the disease by combining multiple biomarkers.

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