TV4 News highlights research where PExA’s technology is being used for future early detection of lung cancer
During Sunday, Swedish national broadcaster TV4 News featured research where PExA’s technology is being used in several of its national news broadcasts. The report focused on future possibilities for detecting lung diseases such as COPD and lung cancer at an earlier stage through analysis of exhaled air.
In the feature, titled “New technology may detect disease long before symptoms appear”, the need for earlier diagnostics was highlighted together with new non-invasive methods based on breath sampling.
PExA has developed a research instrument for simple, non-invasive sampling from the small airways of the lung. The technology is currently used by research groups, hospitals, authorities and industrial research organizations around the world within areas including lung diseases, biomarker research and drug development.
Among those interviewed in the TV4 feature was Åsa Edman, who lives with COPD and described the importance of receiving a diagnosis at an earlier stage.
– If I had known earlier, I would have made many different choices, says Åsa Edman in the TV4 feature.
Professor Sandra Lindstedt at Lund University was also interviewed in the report. Since 2017, her research group has been conducting studies where PExA’s technology is being used to investigate possibilities for earlier detection of, among other things, lung cancer. Last year, the research group was awarded SEK 27 million from the Swedish Cancer Society (Cancerfonden) for continued research within the area, something previously communicated by PExA.
In the interview, Sandra Lindstedt described a future possibility where the technology, following further development and validation, could potentially be used as a screening tool for risk groups.
– Then you could potentially have a model similar to mammography, where primarily risk groups are invited first, says Sandra Lindstedt in the TV4 feature.
The technology is based on collecting biological particles from the small airways of the lung — an area where many lung diseases begin, but which today’s methods often have difficulty accessing.
Traditional methods for detecting lung cancer are often associated with extensive procedures, and conventional CT imaging normally requires abnormalities to have grown sufficiently large before they can be identified. By analyzing biological material in exhaled air, the goal is in the future to identify early molecular changes associated with lung cancer before the disease is detected using current methods.
– Biological signals and biomarker patterns are now beginning to emerge for several lung diseases, including lung cancer, further strengthening the potential of the technology and its future diagnostic applications, says Tomas Gustafsson, CEO of PExA.
PExA’s technology is currently used by research groups, authorities, hospitals and industrial research organizations within areas such as biomarker discovery, drug development, vaccine research, lung cancer, inflammatory lung diseases and occupational health-related research.
The company has previously communicated that patent applications have been filed relating to biomarkers and molecular changes in exhaled air within, among other areas, lung cancer.
Over the past six months, PExA’s technology has received attention in several Swedish media outlets, including Swedish Radio Ekot, Aftonbladet and now also TV4’s national news broadcasts.
See the TV4 feature here:
https://www.tv4.se/artikel/6sUAoyzniPIkRf9cfDA2mF/ny-teknik-kan-upptaecka-sjukdom-langt-innan-dina-symtom-uppstar
See also TV4 News’ 7 PM broadcast, where PExA was mentioned both in the introduction and in a longer feature approximately 12 minutes into the program:
https://www.tv4play.se/video/db3415da8becb31b3184/sondag-24-maj-19-00