Cancer diagnostic inventions receive £3.8 million backing

Four technology companies have been awarded a total of £3.8 million between them to develop cancer diagnostic tools.

C the Signs, Cambridge Oncometrix, Chromition and Deep Med IO have all received the funding from SBRI Healthcare after initially being awarded £100,000 each after winning a national competition – meaning they can now be fast-tracked to market.

The further investment follows the companies demonstrating technical feasibility over a six-month development phase.

One of the companies, C the Signs – an app and website that helps clinicians identify patients at risk of cancer at a faster rate – is already available on the NHS.

Karen Livingstone, national director of SBRI Healthcare, said: “Each of the four winning companies was selected on the basis of their potential to deliver improved outcomes for patients and on their potential value to the NHS. The fact that this clutch of projects encompasses technologies including digital pathology, histopathology, liquid biopsy and artificial intelligence, demonstrates the range of innovations available to the NHS. We look forward to working with the inventors of these incredible, ground-breaking technologies to help make their technologies a reality in primary care and within our hospitals.”

Cambridge Oncomextrix develop technology in order to speed up the process of diagnosing prostate cancer without patients having to undergo a biopsy. Chromition has developed a way for biopsy results to be obtained and analysed faster using labels that transforms the way histopathology is conducted within the NHS, with Deep Med IO has developed a computer aided diagnosis system for digital pathology along with an AI powered system for automatic identification of metastatic regions in lymph nodes on stained telescopic slides.

The SBRI Healthcare competitions are funded by NHS England in partnership with the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs).