Strand Life Sciences launches Liquid Biopsy test tool

Bengaluru : Developing a health product that can help with better detection of cancer, city-based Strand Life Sciences launched 'Strand LB' a Luquid Biopsy test portfolio that promises to provide more accurate detection of tumor traces from a simple blood draw.

Briefing news persons Strand CMD Vijay Chandru said this powerful tool can provide early and precise indication of tumor presence,cancer recurrence and response to therapy compared to any other method used in the medical industry.

Developed by Indian experts at Strand, which is located at Mazumdar Shaw Centre for Translational Research (MSCTR) on the out skirts of the city, the genomic profiling and bioinformatics company has developed this tool indigenous, while few of such high end test products for cancer ever reaches the country from abroad.

''Liquid biopsy is a paradigm shift that involves aminimally-invasive procedure, no radioactive scans and can detecttumor DNA traces. However, detecting tumor DNA requires a highlysensitive test capable of detecting one molecule in a 1000.

''Our study on patients spanning a wide variety of cancer types, like lung, colorectal, breast and bladder cancer shows that Strand LB can detect tumor DNA traces in as many as 35 per cent of patients with early stage cancer, upto 70-90 per cent in patients with locally advanced or metastatic caner. These figures are on par with the world,' he said.

Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar Shah, who spoke, said Big Dataoffers to improve cancer patient care and was a huge opportunity in geonomics that help in better diagnostic and personal medicine care.

''We need to mine, understand and elver age the data otherwise it may go waste. This is what Liquid Biopsy is capable of. I am happy Strand had strived hard to develop a product to diagnose cancer in India and Made in India,'' she said.

Strand LB test is validated by clinicians at MSMC. The kit costs Rs 20,000 and least effective on the health of a person wanting to undergo cancer screening compared PET scan which can cost up to Rs 25,000.

Strand CEO Ramesh Hariharan said blood samples can be sent from any where in India to Strand Centre here and the results would beprovided in five days.

''By coupling Strand LB with our internationally established and well-published tumor biopsy test, we can provide a complete and economical tumor monitoring solution for most patients,'' Dr Hariharan added.