Vancouver, British Columbia-based Inspirata has earned a $3.15 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to create a risk predictor of aggressiveness in head and neck cancer.
Inspirata is sharing the award with Case Western Reserve University and Vanderbilt University.
This most recent award is in addition to $6.4 million in NCI grants previously awarded to Inspirata and Case Western Reserve to develop digital pathology-based tests for breast and lung cancers.
"Our teams have been able to leverage recent advances in digital pathology and computational image analysis methods to develop predictive and prognostic assays for a growing number of assays," Inspirata founder and Executive Vice President Mark Lloyd said in a statement.
[Also: Mass General, Brigham and Women's launch digital pathology ...]
By gauging the aggressiveness of a patient's disease, those with less aggressive cancers can avoid treatments such as chemotherapy.
"Once commercialized, our assays could offer patients the option to receive less expensive and less harmful therapies knowing their risk is lower," Lloyd noted.
Inspirata has licensed whole-slide image-related technology for breast cancer prognosis and aims to create pre-commercial diagnostic tests prior to going through the regulatory process to commercial launch.
Earlier this year, Inspirata acquired pathology software company Omnyx from GE Healthcare. The acquisition enabled the company to deliver an in vitro diagnostic device for primary diagnosis in Europe and Canada.
Twitter: @Bernie_HITN
Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com
