BioMark's Liquid Biopsy Assay Levering Metabolomics Demonstrates Strong Performance for Early Lung Cancer Detection

March 24, 2020 6:30 AM EDT | Source: BioMark Diagnostics, Inc.

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 24, 2020) - BioMark Diagnostics Inc. (CSE: BUX) (FSE: 20B) (OTC PINK: BMKDF) ("BioMark") is pleased to announce that the article "A High-Performing Plasma Metabolite Panel for Early-Stage Lung Cancer Detection" has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Cancers, validating BioMark's technology to detect early-stage (I/II) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using a simple blood plasma test.

Rashid Bux, President and CEO, says, "This latest publication demonstrates our ability to further leverage our international team of leading clinicians, scientists, researchers and data scientists in discovery and validation studies for the development of early detection lung cancer diagnostic assay. The objective of the research was to use metabolomic techniques to discover and validate plasma metabolite biomarkers for the diagnosis of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer. The study included plasma samples from patients with biopsy-confirmed NSCLC along with age and gender-matched plasma samples from healthy controls. Robust predictive models were developed and validated using these metabolites and other, easily measured clinical data for detecting different stages of NSCLC. This study successfully identified and validated a simple, high-performing, metabolite-based test for detecting early stage (I/II) NSCLC patients in plasma."

The team consisted of Dr. David Wishart (Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB), Lun Zhang (Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB) Dr. Rupasri Mandal (Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB) , Jiamin Zheng (Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB) Jennifer Reid Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB) Dr. Andrew Maksymiuk (CancerCare Manitoba), Daniel Sitar (Department of Internal Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba), Bram Ramjiawan (Asper Clinical Research Institute & Office of Clinical Research, St. Boniface Hospital, Winnipeg, Manitoba), Paramjit Tappia (Asper Clinical Research Institute & Office of Clinical Research, St. Boniface Hospital, Winnipeg, Manitoba), Dr. Christian Rolfo (Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Centre, University of Maryland, School of Medicine Baltimore), and Alessandro Russo (Medical Oncology Unit A.O. Papardo & Department of Human Pathology, University of Messina).

The recently published paper is available through:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32156060 and Cancers 2020, 12(3), 622; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers12030622

"While very promising, further validation on larger and more diverse cohorts is still required. BioMark has commenced a Pan-Canadian collaboration with leading clinicians, scientists, biobank, leading research institutions, machine learning analysts, accredited lab, regulatory advisors and health technology assessment specialists to prime and develop the assay for early lung cancer detection and screening application which has significant global demand given the limitation of existing tests. The technology works, and we've been able to show that this is a superb experimental platform with major clinical potential," says Rashid Bux. A key advantage of developing a blood based metabolomic test is that it can be easily converted into a low-cost, high-throughput assay that can be run at almost any clinical laboratory equipped with a standard triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer very efficiently. We estimate that a modified assay that is specific to the metabolites identified here require as little as 10 μL of plasma. These promising results suggest that a minimally invasive, high performance, high-throughput, low cost lung cancer screening assay might be developed that could be used to select patients for further follow-up and confirmation using LDCT or other lung imaging modalities.

About Cancers

Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694) is an international, peer-reviewed open access journal on oncology. It publishes article types including Research Papers, Reviews, Editorials, Communications, etc. Our aim is to encourage scientists to publish their experimental and theoretical results in as much detail as possible. The full experimental details must be provided so that the results can be reproduced.

Scope of Journal

We publish high-quality articles including basic, translational, and clinical studies on all tumor types (https://medlineplus.gov/cancers.html).

About BioMark Diagnostics Inc.

BioMark is developing proprietary, non-invasive, and accurate cancer diagnostic solutions which can help detect, monitor and assess treatment for cancer early and cost effectively. The technology can also be used for measuring response to treatment and potentially for serial monitoring for cancer survivors.

Further information about BioMark is available under its profile on the SEDAR website www.sedar.com and on the CSE website https://thecse.com/.

For further information on BioMark, please Contact:

Rashid Ahmed Bux 
President & CEO
BioMark Diagnostics Inc.
Tel. 604-370-0779 
Email: info@biomarkdiagnostics.com

Forward-Looking Information:

This press release may include forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, concerning the business of BioMark. Forward-looking information is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the management of BioMark. Although BioMark believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking information is based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information because BioMark can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. BioMark disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, other than as required by applicable securities laws.

The CSE has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this press release.

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