Cancer diagnostics company, Pacific Edge Limited (NZX: PEB) has signed an agreement with Singapore General Hospital (SGH), the country’s first and largest hospital, to conduct a User Programme (observational study) with Pacific Edge’s Cxbladder Triage and Cxbladder Detect tests.

SGH will evaluate the use of the Cxbladder tests for several clinical applications in their settings. Firstly, as a test to triage out patients with a low risk of bladder cancer, potentially avoiding an invasive urological workup for those patients identified as having a low probability of having urothelial carcinoma (bladder cancer); and secondly, for the detection of bladder cancer as part of the urological workup. 

The study aims to evaluate Cxbladder on a variety of patients as well as establishing the clinical framework for assessment of Cxbladder by a number of other urologists in Singapore moving forward.

This is the second User Programme which Pacific Edge has announced with a leading hospital in Singapore since 2015, when it first began investigating the opportunity in South East Asia.

Pacific Edge Chief Executive Officer, David Darling, said: “South East Asia offers an exciting opportunity for our company and we have established a commercial base in Singapore which will allow us to build our presence in this region.

“Singapore offers a number of benefits including internationally certified hospitals and a significant and growing population of medical tourists. It was ranked best in the world in 2014 for the most efficient healthcare system out of 51 countries¹ and first as the favoured global medical tourism destination². In 2013, medical expenditure generated from medical tourists was S$832 million. Health screenings make up part of this expenditure and are popular with tourists and locals alike. We expect that the Cxbladder suite of products will appeal to people seeking these work-ups.

"Singapore General Hospital is the flagship hospital of Singapore’s public healthcare system as well as a leader in translational and clinical research. We are excited to provide Cxbladder for evaluation by the urology team.”

Chairman of Pacific Edge, Chris Gallaher, commented: “This agreement is another significant milestone for Pacific Edge as we build our international presence, particularly in the USA, and also in South East Asia and our other targeted markets.”

Investigation of haematuria (blood in the urine) places considerable burdens on both patients and healthcare providers. Patients with these symptoms often undergo a full urological exam yet very few are ultimately diagnosed with bladder cancer. Pacific Edge’s ‘one stop shop’ of non invasive, highly accurate and cost effective Cxbladder tests enables people with a low risk of bladder cancer or recurrence of bladder cancer, to avoid unnecessary and invasive urological evaluation, and assists clinicians to confidently diagnose the presence of bladder cancer.

¹ Bloomberg, 2014