Pancreatic cancer diagnostics company Immunovia (STO:IMMNOV) announced on Thursday that it has enhanced the performance of its next-generation test for detecting early-stage pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC) in high-risk individuals, which are potentially curable with surgery and modern treatments.

The sensitivity of the test has been improved to 85% with a specificity of 98% in detecting stage 1 and 2 PDAC.

In a study, the test outperformed the commonly used CA19-9 biomarker. The company conducted a model development study using 624 patient samples to refine test performance, and the results were independently confirmed by ACOMED.

Immunovia plans to submit the findings for peer review and presentation at medical conferences.

A large-scale clinical validation study will be conducted in the fourth quarter of 2024, with the aim of launching the test in the United States in 2025.