Sergio Occhipinti, PhD | NIB biotec; Fabio Di Nardo, PhD; Mirella Giovarelli, PhD.
Competition Sponsor: EIT Health of the European Union
Awardee Year: 2023
To date, the diagnosis of prostate cancer is posed following a biopsy examination indicated in men with suspected results in a preliminary blood exam.
However, the poor specificity of the current test has led to an excess of unnecessary procedures with related side effects and to the lengthening of the diagnostic path with an enormous impact on the economic level and on the quality of life of citizens, indicating the absolute need for a more efficient screening test.
Furthermore, social determinants can influence the possibility of accessing diagnostic pathway. For example non-urban areas and low-income countries residences may negatively impact prostate cancer outcomes due to limited access to healthcare services.
The ideal mass screening strategy should be low-cost, but even efficient, minimal labour-intensive and non-invasive.
NIB biotec own a patent that claims the use of urinary molecules as biomarkers for prostate cancer, with better diagnostic performance compared to the current standard of care. We have developed ScreeNIB, a smart biosensor that can rapidly provide information about the presence of prostate cancer by an urologist at a patient site in order to improve the diagnostic path and decentralize first-line exams outside the hospitals and towards local areas.
Our ScreeNIB test combines appropriate disease biomarkers to a smart point-of-care technology that could help to reduce health and social costs of the prostate cancer diagnostic pathway and to achieve equity by mitigating disparity in accessing health care.