A New Diagnostic Kit For Lymphoma Diagnosis

New Kit Takes the Uncertainty Out of Lymphoma Diagnosis

A new diagnostic kit which takes the uncertainty out of lymphoma diagnosis, has been launched at the Veterinary Cancer Society's annual conference this month.

Developed by PetScreen (http://www.pet-screen.com) in the UK, the announcement is a significant breakthrough in the diagnosis of canine lymphoma with the major benefit being that it is able to differentiate between patients with lymphadenopathy due to lymphoma and lymphadenopathy due to other ailments such as lymphoid hyperplasia.

The announcement also signals a partnership and commercial venture between PetScreen Ltd and Tridelta Development Ltd to jointly develop manufacture and market a unique range of veterinary cancer diagnostic kits under the banner of 'Tri-Screen' (http://www.tri-screen.net). PetScreen has established the first reference laboratory offering the Advanced Lymphoma Blood Test (ALBT) utilising the Tri-Screen Canine Lymphoma assay kit. The kit is available now to enable laboratories worldwide to offer veterinarians this advanced testing system.

For the past two years, PetScreen's research team have been busy characterising and identifying the biomarkers used in their earlier lymphoma blood test. They found that two of the markers are Acute Phase Proteins (APP's). Although APP's have been investigated in veterinary medicine for some time PetScreen has developed a unique multi-marker approach which led to the development of patented and copyrighted analytical algorithms which combine the relative values of both Haptoglobin and C-Reactive Protein (CRP) in serum.

By enlisting the support of vets in the UK and USA the assay has been rigorously tested with 194 canine patients with lymphoma, benign lymphoid hyperplasia and other diseases with similar presentation to lymphoma as well as healthy dogs.

By testing the acute phase proteins using immunoassay, PetScreen achieved excellent levels of high performance, reproducibility and objectivity. The combination of the three diagnostic elements enables differentiation with a very high degree of sensitivity and specificity … ensuring an appropriate treatment regimen can begin at a critical early stage of disease identification and development.

In order to make this available to a global reference laboratory market, a partner with a unique understanding of APP diagnostic kit manufacture and marketing was required … it quickly became apparent that Tridelta's reputation and experience with the international pharmaceutical industry in this niche sector qualified their preferred partner status. Each company brings its own strengths to the Tri-Screen brand of diagnostic kits. For Tridelta it is an important step into the companion animal marketplace; for PetScreen, the opportunity to globalise and advance their veterinary diagnostics expertise in this important and rapidly emerging sector.

Source: PetScreen