Panakeia launches PANProfiler Colon, an AI-driven tool for precision medicine in colon cancer
Panakeia has launched PANProfiler Colon, an AI-driven tool for precision medicine in colon cancer.
Leveraging AI and proprietary insights into colorectal cancer biology, PANProfiler Colon is the second clinical product originating from Panakeia’s PANProfiler multi-omic biomarker profiling platform.
PANProfiler Colon is designed to determine MSI/dMMR status from H&E-stained images of colon cancer tissue samples from patients within minutes, accelerating the diagnosis process and empowering pathologists and oncologists to make treatment decisions leading to personalised treatment and improved outcomes for patients.
MSI and dMMR are hallmarks of colorectal cancer (CRC) and can identify cases of Lynch syndrome, also known as hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC). Testing for these markers has become routine clinical practice and is also key to informing downstream treatment decisions by oncologists.
Prof David Harrison, Professor of Pathology at the University of St Andrews, director of iCAIRD and consultant in NHS Lothian, said: “PANProfiler Colon is the second profiling tool generated by Panakeia and its PANProfiler platform, the utility of which was explored by the Industrial Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research in Digital Diagnostics consortium.
“Receiving an early cancer diagnosis can vastly improve a patient’s experience and treatment outcomes. We continue to be impressed by the quality of the results generated by PANProfiler’s entirely digital molecular profiling. We look forward to continuing working with the team to uncover further time and resource saving solutions to benefit patients.”
Pahini Pandya, founder and CEO of Panakeia, said: “The launch of PANProfiler Colon is another key milestone for Panakeia. We are committed to making precision medicine accessible across the globe and continue to deliver on this vision by releasing our second product for use in colon cancer MSI/dMMR molecular profiling.
“Our PANProfiler suite of solutions has the potential to revolutionise precision medicine providing an end-to-end solution for biomarker profiling across the drug discovery, development and clinical decision making pathways.”
A spokesperson added: “PANProfiler Colon is available as a software for use in hospitals. The product integrates seamlessly into existing software workflows and is deployed at the hospital’s pathology laboratory. Tissue samples are scanned and stored on a computer.
“At the click of a button, the image is sent to Panakeia’s secure software device for analysis, returning an answer in 10-15 minutes determining the biomarker status of MSI/dMMR. This allows for pathologists and oncologists to make an informed treatment decision.
“Normally, this kind of information would come from complex laboratory testing, which needs specialist expertise, costs several hundred pounds and can take several days or weeks to return an answer. This causes delay and unnecessary stress to the patient when dealing with a cancer diagnosis and a tumour that is growing by the day.”
Panakeia, which was incorporated in 2018, is venture-backed, having raised capital from an international syndicate of leading tech and healthcare investors. These include Local Globe, headed by Saul Klein - a non-executive director of the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology who is helping to shape the UK’s AI strategy- Ascension Ventures, Hoxton Ventures, Entrepreneur First - which is headed by Matt Clifford, who is currently delivering the AI Opportunities Action Plan to the government - and Duke Capital Partners, plus private investors.