Masaryk University, together with the Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute and BioVendor, has signed a license agreement for the use of a diagnostic kit developed by a team of scientists from the CEITEC MU institute led by Ondřej Slabý. The new patented method for diagnosing colorectal cancer enables the early detection of colon tumors and monitoring of disease progression using only a sample of the patient's blood. The finished test kit could be available to doctors within two years.

Brno pioneers in innovative diagnostics
Ondřej Slabý from the Institute of Biology of the Faculty of Medicine and the CEITEC MU Center for Molecular Medicine, together with his colleagues, has been researching non-coding RNAs as tools for innovative diagnosis and treatment of cancer for more than ten years. They published their first scientific paper on microRNA in colorectal cancer in 2007, at that time as the first team working on this issue in the Czech Republic. This work was followed by more than 100 other scientific papers. Ondřej Slabý's team now collaborates with leading global researchers in this field and is also part of major international consortia focused on developing cancer diagnostics based on the use of non-coding RNAs. They are currently celebrating their first successes in transferring and commercializing their findings.

New methods have helped
Modern high-capacity genomic technologies have brought new possibilities to the field of innovative diagnostics. One of these is, for example, next-generation sequencing, which has enabled faster and cheaper detection of nucleic acids. Thanks to this technology, scientists have been able to read all microRNAs (a class of short non-coding RNAs) associated with colorectal cancer not only in tumor tissue, but also in body fluids such as blood serum. Tumor cells use microRNAs to communicate with their surroundings, which is why they can also enter the bloodstream. Based on their presence in the blood, it is then possible to determine whether a patient has developed cancer. Comparing the levels of microRNAs associated with colorectal cancer in several hundred patients and healthy individuals has enabled scientists to develop a new method for diagnosing tumors. The newly developed method not only detects the presence of cancer cells in the blood, but also helps doctors monitor the success of a patient's treatment, observe possible tumor recurrence, and predict a patient's three-year survival rate at any clinical stage of the disease. This information is important for doctors in planning treatment and helps them decide whether a patient will undergo surgery or need chemotherapy. The new method is also very accurate, correctly identifying colorectal cancer in nine out of ten patients.

A biotechnology company is collaborating on the production of the kit
The scientists first patented their newly developed method. They then began collaborating on further development with the Czech biotechnology company BioVendor, laboratory medicine a.s., which expressed interest in the new diagnostic procedure. The research team first signed a framework cooperation agreement with BioVendor, and only after the company had verified in its own laboratories that the method really works was a license agreement concluded at the end of last year between Masaryk University, BioVendor, and the Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute, which played a key role as a workplace providing biological material and clinical expertise. BioVendor and the Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute, which played a key role as a workplace providing biological material and clinical expertise. Once the final product reaches the market, Masaryk University will be entitled to a share of the sales revenue. In the future, a modified version of the diagnostic kit could also be used to detect other types of cancer. Once the final product reaches the market, Masaryk University will be entitled to a share of the sales revenue. In the future, a modified version of the diagnostic kit could also be used for screening tests for this disease.

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers in Czechia
Colorectal cancer ranks third among the most common malignancies worldwide. In the Czech Republic, colorectal cancer is one of the most common types of cancer, with approximately 8,000 new patients diagnosed each year. Over four thousand people succumb to the disease every year. Despite the fact that the Czech Republic has an extensive screening program that regularly checks people over the age of 50 for colon cancer or precancerous lesions, the percentage of tumors detected at an early stage, when treatment of the disease can be much more successful, is very low. One reason why people do not cooperate and do not take the test for hidden blood in the stool is a general aversion to handling stool. In addition, tumors that manifest themselves in this way are often already at an advanced stage. Another reason is that a positive test is followed by a colonoscopy, which is an unpleasant examination that in many cases ends without any findings. The new diagnostic kit could reduce the current number of patients undergoing colonoscopy and at the same time increase the number of early stages of the disease detected.