Industry News: Karolinska Institutet Participates in Immunovia’s PanFAM-1 Multicenter Clinical Study

Immunovia AB has announced that the Karolinska Institutet is to participate in PanFAM-1, the largest ever prospective study looking at early diagnosis in high-risk individuals with Familial Pancreatic Cancer (FPC). Designed to validate Immunovia ́s innovative blood test, IMMray™ PanCan-d, the study will analyze more than thousand individuals over three years across sites in Sweden, the US and Europe already offering FPC screening programs. The aim is to improve the outcome for the cancer patients and to prove the overall healthcare benefits of testing persons with heredity for pancreatic cancer. In Sweden, the early participation of nearly all key centers raises the possibility of creating a national screening program.  Parallel to this Immunovia is also running a study for another newly identified high risk group, new onset diabetics over 50 years of age. 

 “When it has been possible to intervene early with surgery we have had been able to significantly raise survival rates in our clinic, as has been the case with our colleagues in the other sites involved in PanFAM-1,” says PI Dr Urban Arnelo of the Pancreatic Surgery Unit, Division of Surgery, Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology (CLINTEC) Karolinska Institutet. “However, we still lack accurate, non-invasive early diagnostic tools and are now interested to participate in the study to see if IMMray™ PanCan-d could provide the answer.”

 “We are delighted that Karolinska Institutet participates in the PanFAM-1 study for two reasons. Firstly, this marks a major step forward as we aim to establish a national program for early detection of pancreatic cancer among major risk groups here in Sweden and secondly because of their worldwide reputation as a center of excellence in oncology,” commented Mats Grahn, CEO, Immunovia.

The other PanFAM-1 partners to date are: Mount Sinai, New York; Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, OR; The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Pittsburgh, PA; The Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA; NYU School of Medicine, New York; The University of Liverpool, UK; Ramon y Cajal Institute for Health Research Madrid, Spain; University Hospital of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Clínica Universidad de Navarra, Spain; and Linköping University Hospital and Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg - both in Sweden. Advanced discussions over potential participation continue with several other European and US centers running high risk surveillance programs. 

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