In a report published by Transparency Market Research, the global cancer diagnostics market was estimated four months ago as being on track to grow at a CAGR of 7.6% over the next five years to around $169 billion. The increasing prevalence of lung cancer, the second most common type of all cancers, will continue to be a strong underlying driver of the diagnostic market’s growth. China is seen as one of the fastest growing markets in this segment, considering the incident rate is rising ferociously according to the latest World Health Organization analysis, which cites the fact that lung cancer is now the most common type diagnosed among Chinese males and has rocketed up to become the top overall cancer killer in the country.
The story of a beautiful young 20-year-old Chinese girl, Li Na, recently went viral online across China, detailing her courageous battle against and eventual death at the hands of lung cancer. This story of an attractive young girl, cut down in the prime of her life by the ravages of lung cancer (including a leg amputation at the thigh due to associated osteosarcoma), has created a much sharper awareness among Chinese people far and wide regarding to the country’s growing problem with cancer, as well as air pollution. The highly publicized smog in Beijing continues to be a prime and oft-cited example of the kinds of environmental hazards and principal causes behind the alarming rise of lung cancer cases in China. Of course, high rates of smoking among Chinese men is also a major contributing factor and given that early detection of cancer is perhaps the most important element of a solution when it comes to saving lives, the early detection and diagnostics market, particularly for lung cancer, has a very bright future indeed – both at home here in the U.S. and abroad.
The recent buzz about a lung cancer breathalyzer testing system developed by University of Cambridge researchers and under further development towards commercialization by a university spin off, Owlstone Nanotech, shows that breath-based detection technology is finally coming into its own. Given that early detection of lung cancer results in a roughly 71% survival rate and that less than 15% of cases today are ever detected early, the demand for a robust testing system is extremely high within the medical community. The advent of a commercial device would mean the possibility for comprehensive testing and Owlstone has floated a potential target date for devices to start appearing in medical clinics in the UK of around September 2016, with a commercial product possibly becoming available sometime in 2017.
Much farther along the commercialization pathway in bringing a breath-based lung cancer detection device to market is publicly traded Zenosense, Inc. (OTCQB: ZENO), which is currently trading at a highly accessible share price of around $0.18/share. Zenosense has an exclusive contract with European sensor developer Sgenia Group, whose dedicated subsidiary, Zenon Biosystem, is developing both a lung cancer detection device and a MRSA/SA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) detection device based on their established, patent-pending sensor technology.
Sgenia Group has an impressive track record in sensor technology as well, having established itself firmly in European markets via efforts like their development and supply of cutting-edge sensors to the $19 billion plus Tokamak nuclear fusion project. This same sensor hardware and software was later adapted and successfully utilized in producing an algal contamination detector capable of scanning for targeted VOCs (volatile organic compounds) in water supplies, technology which has been and is being rolled out across Spain. The proprietary sensor hardware and electronic processing technology developed by Sgenia is extremely accurate and yet cheap in the currently under development applications, leveraging key design advances and a software-based virtualization technique in order to create a platform that is both high-fidelity and cost-effective.
Zenon Biosystem’s development of MRSA/SA and lung cancer detection devices using this technology has gone extremely well thus far, with a set of pre-commercial lung cancer detectors having been successfully manufactured as of November 2014, and a subsequent 400-person detection trial initiated at a university hospital the following month. Given that the MRSA/SA prototype already produced a sensibility detection rate of over 95% last year, confidence is high at ZENO that they have the pole position when it comes to commercializing a lung cancer detector that uses exhaled breath.
Moreover, the company has already seen key device advancements in the areas of screening out background VOCs that would be considered noise when it comes to making an accurate diagnosis, using molecular sieves and nanometric sensing mesh. Similar advancements by Zenon with the development of new metal oxide materials and combinations thereof, not currently seen in commercially available sensors, as well as the design of a complementary quartz crystal sensor that uses a gas sorbent substrate and associated micro gas chromatography chip for pre-detection screening, also give the company a considerable edge.
If Zenosense can bring a breath-based, cost-effective lung cancer detection device to market ahead of the competition, the company could be raking in the dough amid a booming global cancer diagnostics market.
For more information, visit www.zenosense.net
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