SAN FRANCISCO– InterVenn® Biosciences, a clinical technology company leveraging glycoproteomics to transform the future of healthcare, today announced the start of enrollment in its prospective cohort study for early detection of colorectal cancer and adenomas. This confirmatory Noninvasive Identification of Colorectal Cancer and Adenomas in Early Stages – better known as the NICE Study – is intended to validate InterVenn’s platform to detect early colorectal cancers and precancerous adenomas with a high degree of accuracy from a groundbreaking low volume of blood.
“InterVenn Biosciences was established with the mission that no one should ever be blindsided by disease. Early detection is critical for fulfilling this promise to significantly improve patient outcome and survival,” said Tillman Pearce, Chief Medical Officer of InterVenn Biosciences. “The initiation of recruitment in our prospective NICE Study is a significant step forward for InterVenn to demonstrate that our platform has clinical utility to enable and accelerate detection of CRC at earlier stages than conventionally possible today with other methods.”
The NICE Study represents the next phase in InterVenn’s advancement toward improving cancer screening, building on the pilot data that the company presented at the ASCO healthcare conference in early June. The pilot data demonstrated positive results for the InterVenn perspectIV™ platform measuring glycosylation of circulating plasma proteins, detecting early CRC and precancerous advanced adenomas with high sensitivity from a low volume of peripheral blood (typically ~100uL).
The multicenter NICE observational study (NCT05445570) is enrolling participants prior to a colonoscopy across major gastroenterology centers, such as Borland Groover, Louisiana Research Center, Paragon Rx Clinical, East View Medical Research, and Blue Ridge Medical Research. This study will support current and future discovery as well as generate clinical evidence for InterVenn’s oncology portfolio developed on InterVenn’s perspectIV™ platform.
“As a premier G.I. practice, Borland Groover is deeply committed to fighting colon cancer with all available tools and is excited to be part of this trial,” said Borland Groover Principal Investigator, Bharat Misra, MD. “While colonoscopy is the gold standard for Colorectal Cancer (CRC) screening, many patients are reluctant to have this procedure. A blood-based screening test is more appealing to our patients who are reluctant to getting screened via colonoscopy and is the future of colon cancer screening.”
InterVenn’s oncology program includes a series of liquid biopsy-based assays that InterVenn develops to address a variety of cancers. InterVenn is building a robust pipeline of liquid biopsy tests to unlock the untapped, rich layer of biology called the glycoproteome, which is, in simple terms, the entire set of sugars on proteins. Because of the essential roles glycoproteins play in physiological functions, the glycoproteome has the potential to be highly significant for real-time clinical decision-making.
Validation from the NICE Study will bring InterVenn’s innovation to colorectal cancer screening, which can potentially help prevent and treat the disease in the future. With approximately 110MM people considered average risk for colorectal cancer in the United States, the US market size for colorectal cancer screening represents a potential $18 billion annual market opportunity.
