The Consumerisation of Health (Part 3)

Issue 92 l Eka’s Weekly Roundup (24 September 2024)

Sep 24, 2024

This is the final edition of our exploration of the Consumerisation of Health. We’re now diving into OXcan, an Eka portfolio company on the cutting edge of early-stage cancer diagnostics.

After covering Neko Health and Daye in previous weeks, we’ve seen how consumer health companies are tackling everything from general population screening to targeted women’s health.

The next leg of Consumer Health sits in high acuity diagnostics, such as early cancer detection. OXcan is redefining early cancer detection, enabling patients to take action earlier and dramatically improving outcomes.

*Note that the information in this newsletter is all publicly available.

OXcan: Revolutionizing Early Cancer Detection (Part 3) 🗞️

Founded in 2020 by Peter Jianrui Liu and Andreas Halner, OXcan (Oxford Cancer Diagnostics) is transforming how we approach cancer detection. At the core of its mission is a powerful idea: diagnosing cancer as early as possible can drastically improve survival rates.

But OXcan isn’t just focused on early detection; they’re making it accessible, convenient, and affordable to the general population. They leverage a blood test focused on protein detection for early cancer detection combining a state of art proteomics and machine learning platform. These tests are low-invasive and offer earlier detection of lung cancer.

The promise of early detection

Historically, cancer diagnostics have been reactive, focusing on people who present symptoms and often occurring at the late stage of cancer’s development. This reactive approach however can lead to late-stage diagnoses when treatment options are limited, and success rates drop drastically. Today, almost half (46%) of all cancers are diagnosed at Stages 3 and 4 in the UK.

OXcan is flipping this approach. Their vision is rooted in the concept of “early biomarkers”—proteins traces in the blood that indicate the presence of cancer long before it’s detectable by traditional imaging. The WHO estimates that diagnosing cancer at the early stages of its development reduces costs by 2-4x, compared with late-stage diagnoses.

Their three pronged approach of (1) cancer expertise, (2) focus on multi-omics, and (3) machine learning enables them to enable curative cancer treatment through early detection.

Comparing pathways: the traditional vs. OXcan model

The current public health pathway for cancer screening is resource-intensive and often delayed. Early stage lung cancer is largely asymptomatic and typically shows few obvious physical changes.

The Mayo Clinic mentions that Incumbent tests include:

Imaging tests. Imaging tests make pictures of the body. They can show the location and size of the lung cancer. Tests might include X-ray, MRI, CT, and positron emission tomography, which also is called a scan.
Sputum cytology. Sputum is the mucus that is coughed up from the lungs. If you are coughing up sputum, it can be looked at under a microscope. The sputum can sometimes show lung cancer cells.
Biopsy. A biopsy is a procedure to remove a sample of tissue for testing in a lab.

What’s more, lung cancer wait lists are some of the longest in the UK with 15% of suspected cancer referrals having to wait >104 days for treatment.

The BBC published a piece just this week on 6 innovations which could drastically improve the burden on the NHS - and OXcan taps into 2 of these:

Tests & scans in shopping centers (potential OXcan)
Lung cancer screening trucks (OXcan)

As a result of a cheap, low-invasive, and simple test, OXcan will be able to reach a mass-market of consumers at various touch points in their day.

OXcan's innovation: breaking down the science

OXcan’s technology is rooted in liquid biopsy — a new approach to cancer diagnostics. More specifically, OXcan is using state of art multi-omic liquid biopsy analysis with a focus on proteomics.

Unlike traditional biopsies, which require invasive surgical procedures, a liquid biopsy looks for tiny fragments of cancer DNA that shed into the bloodstream. This makes it possible to detect the presence of cancer in its earliest stages without needing a tissue sample.

OXcan’s research focuses heavily on machine learning and genomic data. Their algorithms analyze the molecular profile of blood samples, detecting minute changes in DNA that signal the presence of cancerous cells.

Diagnostics crash course: sensitivity and specificity

When evaluating diagnostic tools, two key metrics are sensitivity and specificity. Sensitivity measures how effectively a test identifies true positives, meaning it detects people who actually have a condition. A test with high sensitivity minimizes false negatives, ensuring most cases are caught.

On the other hand, specificity refers to a test’s ability to identify true negatives—those who don’t have the condition. High specificity reduces false positives, preventing healthy individuals from being mistakenly diagnosed. In the context of vaginal health diagnostics, like Daye’s microbiome screening, balancing both sensitivity and specificity is crucial to ensuring accurate and actionable results.

OXcan is delivering very impressive early results on both sensitivity and specificity.

Impact and future growth: democratizing cancer care

OXcan’s work fits into a larger trend of consumer-driven healthcare, where individuals have more control and transparency over their health. By empowering patients to monitor their risk before symptoms even appear, OXcan is shifting the paradigm toward a more proactive and preventative model.

This is particularly important given the strain on public health systems globally. Early detection not only saves lives but also reduces the cost of cancer treatment by avoiding expensive, late-stage interventions.

OXcan in the broader consumer health landscape

Much like Neko Health and Daye, OXcan represents the next wave of healthcare innovation that centers on consumer empowerment. By placing diagnostics in the hands of individuals, they are breaking down barriers in accessibility and enabling earlier, more effective treatments.