A Medical Device Daily

BioCurex (Richmond, British Columbia) reported initiating a collaboration with the Goshen Health System’s Center for Cancer Care (CCC/GHS; Goshen, Indiana) for developing and evaluating its RECAF cancer marker.

BioCurex says RECAF is suitable to detect all cancers and is found on malignant cells from a variety of cancer types but absent in most normal or benign cells. The potential benefit, BioCurex said, is that RECAF “is a superior diagnostic tool and a new way to deliver targeted therapy.”

The collaboration, described as long term, will consist of three phases: The first will continue and expand the applications of serum and biopsy tests using RECAF; the second will focus on imaging applications using RECAF to detect the location of cancerous tumors; the third includes clinical trials in which RECAF will be used as a way to deliver therapeutic agents to destroy the cancer cells “with minimal damage to normal tissues.” The third phase is contingent to the previous development of animal and culture models showing how RECAF targets cancer cells,” the company said.

Douglas Schwartzentruber, MD, medical director of the Center for Cancer Care, said that the pact combines the science and clinical strengths of the two institutions.

Ricardo Moro, MD, president and CEO of BioCurex, said: “Once we finalize the process of licensing the diagnostic applications of the RECAF technology, we shall move the focus of the company to its next logical level, which in-cludes cancer imaging and therapy. We have already started research efforts in this direction and the initial results are encouraging.”

BioCurex develops products based on patented/proprietary technology in the areas of cancer diagnosis, imaging and therapy.

CCC/GHS provides cancer care on the campus of Goshen General Hospital and participates in programs with various cancer researchers and organizations. It reports being involved in more than 40 clinical trials.