LifeGene-Biomarks Inc. awarded $2.4M Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Cancer Institute to develop precision methylation biomarkers for cervical cancer prevention in low resource settings in Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay, and Honduras.

The National Cancer Institute awards a $2.4M Fast-Track Phase 1/Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research grant to LifeGene-Biomarks, Inc. for the project titled: Precision methylation biomarkers for cervical cancer prevention in low resource settings in Latin America. More than 80 percent of cases and 88 percent of deaths occur in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).

We propose to demonstrate the feasibility for the commercialization of a precision methylation test, the CervicalMethDx Test, to stratify HPV+ patients for high risk of cervical cancer, as a reflex test to existing standard of care in Latin American LMICs. In LMICs, where cervical cytology based-screening will not be implemented, optional modalities of our test will be developed in future projects to stratify HPV+ women at high risk of cervical cancer in self-collected vaginal swabs and/or urine samples.

We are partnering with David Sidransky’s research laboratory to optimize the CervicalMethDx Test and with the ESTAMPA Study (NCT01881659) Consortium to introduce precision epigenetic services to residents of Honduras, Colombia, Argentina and Paraguay. Efficient triage of HPV+ women will decrease unnecessary treatment, improve health care quality, decrease health care costs, and reduce cervical cancer mortality disparities in LMICs.