BARD1 Life Sciences Ltd’s (ASX:BD1) shares are trading about 114% higher intra-day after developing the world’s first blood test for early detection of breast cancer.
The company’s BARD1 Breast Cancer (BC) test has shown high diagnostic accuracy for the detection of breast cancer across all sub-types and stages.
Importantly, BARD1 BC accurately distinguishes malignant breast cancer from benign lesions.
It is worth noting that no blood tests are currently available for screening or early detection of breast cancer.
The BARD1 BC breakthrough follows the earlier announcement of success with the BARD1 ovarian cancer test.
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The company now plans to develop both tests in parallel using the same instrumentation platform.
BARD1 BC could be used to screen average-risk asymptomatic women to detect breast cancer earlier, increase screening uptake, improve survival and reduce healthcare costs.
Additionally, BARD1 BC could be used as a diagnostic aid to assess the risk of malignancy of suspicious lesions detected by mammography to determine if a lesion is benign or malignant.
Currently, this can only be achieved with biopsies followed by histopathology-based diagnosis.
BARD1 chief executive officer Dr Leearne Hinch said: “The new BARD1 Breast Cancer test addresses an unmet need for an accurate, reliable and affordable blood test to detect breast cancer early.
“The global breast cancer diagnostics market was the second largest diagnostic segment (after lung cancer) valued at US$20.1 billion in 2013 and is expected to grow at 8.8% annually to reach US$36.4 billion by 2020, representing a significant global market opportunity for an effective breast cancer screening test.
“BARD1 already has a development program for the game-changing BARD1 Ovarian Cancer test which has shown excellent diagnostic accuracy for early detection of ovarian cancer."
