[이뉴스투데이 김영욱 기자] Diseases with a high mortality rate can be significantly lowered by early detection and treatment. However, cervical cancer and pancreatic cancer are diseases with a high mortality rate because early symptoms rarely appear and treatment time is missed.
According to the industry on the 5th, it was confirmed that a domestic company is developing or is developing and selling a self-diagnosis kit that can lower the mortality rate by diagnosing pancreatic and cervical cancer early. The industry predicts that Korea’s excellent diagnostic kit technology will be able to reduce the mortality rate of cancer patients by more than 50%, just as it has greatly contributed to the response to COVID-19.
Pancreatic cancer is a disease that kills an average of 1,000 people a day worldwide, with more than 7,600 cases occurring every year in Korea alone.
In addition, the 5-year relative survival rate was about 12%, the lowest among all cancers. The 5-year relative survival rate refers to the 5-year survival rate of patients with the disease compared to the 5-year survival rate of the general population. For this reason, pancreatic cancer is classified as an intractable disease in which early diagnosis is of the utmost importance.
However, the pancreas is surrounded by other organs, and early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is very difficult because there are few early symptoms.
According to a paper on the prediction of death from cancer in the United States published in the ‘JAMA Network Open’ published by the American Medical Association in 2021, it was confirmed that the risk of pancreatic cancer is increasing enough to become the second leading cause of death in cancer patients by 2040.
However, a Korean company is expected to develop and release a diagnostic kit that can dramatically lower the mortality rate by diagnosing such pancreatic cancer early.
It starts with the research of Professor Baek Yong-gi of Yonsei University. Professor Baek revealed that the CFB (complement change B) protein was increased in the blood of patients with early pancreatic cancer through research. Judging that this research result could be very useful, JW Bioscience exclusively introduced the research result and original technology in 2018.
In addition, JW Holdings, the parent company of JW Science, obtained patents in Japan in 2018, China and Europe in 2019, and the United States in 2020 for the early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer ‘multiple biomarkers (CFB, CA19-9)’, and then to JW Bioscience in 2021. The patent was transferred.
Currently, JW Bioscience is developing a multi-biomarker measurement kit and diagnostic algorithm including CFB and CA19-9. In addition, Yonsei University Professor Baek Yong-gi and Yonsei University Severance Hospital Professor Kang Chang-mu are conducting exploratory clinical trials. Exploratory clinical trials are clinical trials conducted before confirmatory clinical trials aimed at commercialization.
JW Bioscience is aiming to launch a pancreatic cancer diagnosis kit after obtaining approval by conducting a clinical trial for approval next year. Separately, JW Bioscience is also developing a sepsis diagnostic kit.
Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women worldwide, affecting about 500,000 people each year, and more than 50% of them die. In Korea, 3,600 people are diagnosed every year, and 2.6 people die every day.
Cervical cancer has few symptoms in the early stages, but when it progresses to a certain extent, symptoms accompanied by vaginal bleeding, increased vaginal discharge, difficulty urinating, hematuria, severe pelvic pain, and back pain appear.
According to the annual trend of cervical cancer patients by the National Health Insurance Corporation in 2017, the number is increasing from 31,553 in 2009 to 47,038 in 2016. Although the government is aware of the need for regular cervical cancer screening, it has not been implemented, so the average screening rate as of 2016 was only 53%.
The main cause of cervical cancer is HPV (human papillomavirus), which was found in 99.9% of cervical cancer patients.
There are about 100 types of HPV, of which 40 are related to anal and genital infections, and 80% of women are infected at least once. HPVs 16 and 18 are high-risk carcinogenic human papillomaviruses found in 70% of cervical cancer patients. The low-risk group develops warts or gonorrhea.
Bl Science launched the DNA test kit ‘Gainpad H’ in 2019 that can detect HPV, the cause of cervical cancer, at an early stage.
Gainpad H can test a total of 35 viruses, including 21 high-risk groups that cause cervical cancer such as HPV 16 and 18, and 14 low-risk groups that cause genital warts by using the DNA test method.
According to Bl Science, when a woman purchases Gain Pad H, collects a sample and sends it to the Bl Science test center, the test center performs DNA testing. If this test results in a positive result, the patient is referred to the nearest obstetrics and gynecology clinic or hospital of your choice.
Shin Dong-jin, CEO of Bl Science, said, “The HPV DNA test positive rate among the samples received at the Bl Science screening center is 15%. he explained.
If so, how much can Gainpad H lower the cervical cancer mortality rate? CEO Shin said, “The purpose of GainPad H is to prevent the development of cervical cancer by early detection of HPV virus infection. “If Pad H is generalized, we can completely eradicate cervical cancer.”
It is known that 30% of young women and 40% of all women are diagnosed with cervical cancer at the current health screening stage. The industry predicts that if self-diagnostic kits such as GainPad H are widely distributed, the cancer diagnosis rate can more than double than the current one, and the death rate will be lower than now by more than half.
CEO Shin said, “Recently, we are researching and developing various infectious disease early detection kits, such as developing a COVID-19 detection kit.
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