Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide. While early detection significantly improves the chance of survival, traditional screening methods such as colonoscopy are costly, invasive and have low compliance rates.

Now on the horizon is an innovative platform for the detection of colorectal cancer using a simple blood sample. 

The OncoRedox system is based on an AI-powered disposable electrochemical sensor that generates a metabolic fingerprint of the reduction-oxidation (redox) state, which is the process of molecules in our body communicating and exchanging electrons. 

The sensor enables highly accurate disease detection through plasma samples by analyzing the molecules in the blood “like a tongue with receptors” that “recognizes the taste” of cancer, “similar to how people respond to the taste of coffee, for instance,” says OncoRedox cofounder and CTO Prof. Hadar Ben-Yoav. 

Generic technology

“Cancer is built from a profile of 15 to 20 different molecules that change all the time,” notes Ben-Yoav, a member of the department of biomedical engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and head of its Nanobioelectronics Laboratory.

The professor says OncoRedox’s generic technology is “not specific to one type of disease; it is suitable for identifying other types of cancer, such as lung or bladder cancer.”  

Ben-Yoav says the simplicity of the technology sets OncoRedox apart from its competitors worldwide, which focus mainly on detecting colon cancer via stool samples.

“Stool tests are five times more expensive because they’re DNA-based tests. Our method is cost-effective, with a per-test cost of goods at less than $10,” he notes. 

Ben-Yoav adds that stool tests are also less convenient and “only 50% of people” agree to do them, “compared to a blood test, which is something we all are willing to do.”

10 years in the making

The research behind the OncoRedox technology was initiated at BGU more than 10 years ago. Ben-Yoav became involved in the studies after his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. 

“I remember it like it was yesterday. They tested her cancer type and told her to start this medicine that promised less than a 4% chance that the cancer would come back. It’s like chemotherapy, but with less crazy side effects,” he recalls.

Three years later, the cancer came back. “It may be only 4%, but when you’re part of this 4%, you’re 100% sick,” he notes. 

Ben-Yoav himself comes from the field of diagnostics. “I did my PhD in the analytical field; I was the one developing these tests [that determined the success rate of medical solutions].”

He believed there must be a better way to diagnose cancer, as well as other diseases. 

“To understand whether the cancer will come back or not, you actually have to look for a whole specific profile of molecules,” he explains. 

OncoRedox

Seven years ago, Ben-Yoav — in partnership with BGU and Sheba Medical Center — began developing the idea for what officially became OncoRedox in 2022. Prof. Gal Markel, who heads the Davidoff Cancer Center at Rabin Medical Center, is another cofounder of OncoRedox and its CMO. 

The vision of the final product is a home blood test that could be purchased at a pharmacy, like Covid or pregnancy tests. Abnormal results would not necessarily indicate cancer but would point to an anomaly that should be examined via colonoscopy. 

Clinical proof-of-concept studies have so far demonstrated 94 percent accuracy in detecting the disease. 

Ben-Yoav says he hopes to receive US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval within the next two to three years, and have a market-ready product within the next four or five years. 

The stress factor

The company hopes to expand the technology to detect other types of cancer, as well as inflammatory bowel diseases including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. 

“We’ve seen a crazy increase in inflammatory bowel diseases over the past year because they’re related to stress,” Ben-Yoav tells ISRAEL21c. “There is a correlation between stress and the intestinal system.”

He says this extends to cancer, too.

“We all have cancer cells in our bodies at any given time, but the immune system takes care of them. Stress — both mental and physical – weakens the immune system and its ability to treat these cancer cells,” he explains. 

To explore the connection between stress, the immune system and the chance of developing cancer, Ben-Yoav’s lab is building a chip that behaves like the gut and a chip that behaves like the brain. 

“We can recreate a connection between the gut and the brain and see what happens to these organs when we’re stressed. For instance, how do the molecules released in the brain affect the gut?”

Meanwhile, he is working to advance the progress of OncoRedox.

The startup is opening a seed funding round to expand its clinical proof-of-concept studies and trials. It has so far received funding from the Israeli Innovation Authority and Peregrine Venture’s Incentive Incubator, where some of the company’s work is being conducted.

For more information on OncoRedox, click here.