Pacific Edge, a cancer diagnostics company specializing in the discovery and commercialization of diagnostic and prognostic technology, has been granted patent protection for 'Prognosis Prediction for Melanoma' from the United States Patent Office (USPTO).

The patent covers the technology being used to develop the melanoma prognostic test that will enable clinicians to distinguish aggressive and life threatening melanomas from those that are not as aggressive.

“It is the aggressive tumours that will kill you” Pacific Edge chief executive officer David Darling says.

The test applies a gene signature to a tissue sample taken from the melanoma to detect its aggressiveness allowing clinicians to prescribe the appropriate level of treatment. Specifically, the test in development identifies aggressiveness in Stage III melanomas.

Pacific Edge partnered with the Ludwig Institute of Cancer Research, the world’s largest not-for-profit cancer research organisation, to develop the technology. This successful partnership has enabled Pacific Edge to develop the prototype product for detecting aggressiveness in Stage III melanomas.

The USA is the third jurisdiction after China and New Zealand to grant patent protection for the ‘Prognosis Prediction for Melanoma’ test that is in the development stage.

The melanoma test is one of several cancer products that the Company has worked up to prototype level prior to focussing resources on the successful launch and further development of its Cxbladder technology for detecting and managing bladder cancer.  Cxbladderdetect is now being commercialised in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and soon in Spain.  The second product in the Programme, Cxbladdertriage,is scheduled for commercial release in New Zealand later this year.

Pacific Edge was founded to use the latest developments in molecular biology to provide actionable diagnosis that can contribute to a clinically meaningful difference in cancer detection and the management of that cancer. It is the driving force of our research and product development Programme” David Darling says.

“Cxbladder is a prime example. It is a quick, cost effective, non-invasive and highly accurate cancer detection test that enables clinicians to detect urothelial carcinomas, including cancers of the bladder, from a small urine sample.”

Pacific Edge’s ongoing development programme includes clinical and ‘User programmes’ to validate Cxbladdertriage, a new product positioned to enable physians and clinicians to segregate out patients who have presented to the clinician with blood in their urine, who do not have bladder cancer thereby saving considerable clinical work-up cost. Another of the Company’s products in late-stage development and validation is Cxbladderpredict, a product that will enable clinicians to determine the severity of bladder cancer disease and enable them to non-invasively segregate superficial tumours from invasive tumours.

The company’s portfolio of intellectual property continues to grow and includes patents for a gastric cancer test as well as melanoma and bladder cancers.

“We are now leveraging the experience gained in launching Cxbladder to the world’s largest health care market, the USA, into other products for the USA. We are also now looking to other targeted international markets” David Darling says.