Singapore: VolitionRx, focused on developing blood-based diagnostic tests for a broad range of cancer types and other conditions, has commenced a pilot ovarian cancer study in collaboration with Singapore General Hospital (SGH).

Blood and tissue samples collected from 40 patients will be assessed to establish the feasibility of VolitionRx's proprietary NuQ assays in detecting ovarian cancer. If this test proves to be accurate, it could offer hope as an early-stage screening tool.

The collaboration with SGH will be VolitionRx's first to focus solely on patients from an Asian ethnic background. The Hospital will provide 20 matched blood and tissue samples from patients with ovarian cancer as well as blood samples from 20 healthy donors. The anonymised and blinded samples will be analysed by VolitionRx's team and will be the first matched tissue and blood samples to be assessed using its NuQ assays. On completion of the analyses, the data will be unblinded and together the parties will evaluate the performance of the test.

Dr Jake Micallef, chief scientific officer, VolitionRx, added, "This pilot study is incredibly important for us. By working with a small patient population, we are hopeful that we can collect initial data to demonstrate the performance of our Nucleosomics technology through a simple blood test to detect ovarian cancer in a non-invasive way. If the pilot results are favourable and we successfully commercialize the test, we intend to set up a center of excellence in Singapore to service the whole Asian region with regard to screening for ovarian cancer, a cancer for which early detection is crucial."

VolitionRx will retain the intellectual property from the study.