The Imagion Biosystems Ltd (ASX: IBX) share price is rebounding strongly after weeks of severe falls. This comes after the company provided an update on its MagSense HER2 breast cancer study.
During mid-afternoon trade, the biotechnology and nanotechnology company's shares are 38.3% higher to 13 cents.
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What was announced?
According to its release, Imagion advised that it has enrolled its first patient in the MagSense HER2 breast cancer Phase I first-in-human study.
The program aims to investigate the use of a MagSense imaging agent to increase the accuracy in detecting a patient's HER2 breast cancer. More specifically, the nanotechnology looks to see if the tumour has spread to the patient's lymph nodes.
Traditionally, the current standard of care involves a biopsy or surgical removal of the lymph nodes to confirm metastases. Approximately half of HER2 breast cancer patients have no nodal disease. Furthermore, this allows MagSense to provide non-invasive procedures in detecting cancer.
Each patient in the study receives an injection of the MagSense nanoparticle imaging agent and undergoes imaging by MRI. While this occurs, a sample of the lymph node is also assessed using the MagSense magnetic relaxometry technology.
Imagion is expecting to enrol a total of 15 participants in the phase 1 study. The aim of the program is to determine the safety and tolerability of the MagSense imaging agent. Furthermore, the company is also exploring the effectiveness of the nanoparticles for in vivo detection.
Imagion Biosystems executive chair, Bob Proulx commented:
We are very pleased to report our first patient has been enrolled in this ground-breaking study. Though recruiting newly diagnosed cancer patients into a research study can be challenging, we and our investigators remain confident we will reach our recruitment target. We are committed to explore all avenues to achieve our goal of completing this important study.
Imagion share price summary
Over the past 12 months, Imagion shares have gained more than 360%, but have fallen 10% on year-to-date performance. The company's share price reached an all-time high of 22.5 cents earlier this year.
Based on valuation metrics, Imagion commands a market capitalisation of roughly $135 million, with over $1 billion shares outstanding.
