INTERVENTIONS ARE UNNECESSARY3
Prostate cancer represents the highest number of new cases diagnosed among all cancers annually and is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States1. Bladder cancer has the highest recurrence rate of all cancers, making it an extremely expensive cancer to treat2. To date, no effective, accurate and non-invasive tests have been developed for the early detection and monitoring of urological cancers.
Cancer can be deadly and at times elusive, so early detection may mean the difference between life and death.
Unlike other cancers, most prostate cancers are indolent and are unlikely to ever need treatment, and only a relatively small number of prostate cancer patients have aggressive disease that requires treatment.
The challenge lies in differentiating between the two.
Bladder cancer presents a different challenge.
There are currently no general screening tests for bladder cancer, and most patients are diagnosed with the disease after they present with hematuria (blood in the urine) and undergo a cystoscopy, an invasive and expensive test. Since only 1 out of 5 patients with hematuria actually has bladder cancer3, current practice is inefficient, expensive, painful and high risk. Additionally, since bladder cancer frequently recurs, lack of a non-invasive, accurate alternative requires patients to be monitored by cystoscopy every few months after surgery.
3 JAMA. 1986;256(2):224-229. doi:10.1001/jama.1986.03380020086028
miR has developed liquid biopsy urine tests to accurately detect and monitor progression of prostate and bladder cancer. Our methodology can also differentiate between indolent and aggressive prostate cancer and identify patients with recurrent bladder cancer.
IMPACT + ADOPTION =
INFLUENCING STANDARD OF CARE
We strive to change the standards of care by introducing non-invasive, accessible precision medicine tools to impact the quality of life for patients by greatly reducing the number of unnecessary procedures, treatments and their side effects.
As a socially conscious enterprise miR Scientific also evaluates its actions based on societal impact.
Research shows that while the prevalence of disease is similar across populations, the mortality rates for certain ethnic groups is significantly higher 5. miR’s technology was developed without bias and validated across multiple ethnic populations to ensure ubiquitous access to accurate and affordable disease management tools.
5 Source: CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians
