VolitionRx enters agreement with University of Oxford to initiate endometriosis study

VolitionRx Ltd, a life sciences company focused on developing blood-based diagnostic tests, has entered into an agreement with the University of Oxford to initiate a clinical study that will assess VolitionRx’s proprietary Nucleosomics platform technology for the diagnosis of endometriosis through a simple blood test. Under the agreement, The University of Oxford will provide VolitionRx with serum and plasma samples from approximately 350 patients with endometriosis and 150 control patients over a period of two years. The samples are donated by participating women through the biospecimen repository of the Oxford Endometriosis CaRe Centre.

The prospective study will focus on the development of a blood test to help clinicians diagnose endometriosis at an earlier stage. The 350-patient sample collection, supplemented with approximately 150 retrospectively-collected samples, will comprise healthy and endometriosis-positive individuals confirmed by laparoscopy. Differences in circulating nucleosomes will be evaluated across the menstrual cycle using VolitionRx’s Nucleosomics technology platform.

Collection of the samples will be led by Christian Becker, PhD, and Krina Zondervan, PhD, of the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, University of Oxford, who are co-directors of the Endometriosis CaRe Centre, Oxford. The study will assess samples collected from patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis-related symptoms or patients undergoing laparoscopic tubal sterilization. Sample collection is anticipated to end in 2016 as part of an ongoing biospecimen collection and biobanking program. Read more about Nucleosomics technology on the VolitionRx website.