INOVIQ Limited announced that a feasibility study to evaluate the use of SubB2M as an immunohistochemistry reagent to aid in discriminating between benign skin lesions, malignant and metastatic melanoma has been successfully completed. In a study of 144 tissue samples, SubB2M staining scores were significantly greater in malignant and metastatic samples when compared to benign skin lesions. Cells staining positive for SubB2M approached 100% in malignant and metastatic tissues.

The cell staining was independently scored by Dr. Ian Katz, Senior Pathologist at Southern Sun Pathology and Senior Lecturer at the School of Clinical Medicine, University of Queensland. The researchstage SubB2M IHC test has a sensitivity of 91% of detection of malignant and metastatic melanoma tissue samples. The IHC program confirmed the presence of Neu5Gc in multiple tissue sections including breast, prostate, cervical, ovarian, colorectal and skin.

These findings support INOVIQ's SubB2M diagnostics program developing blood tests for monitoring of breast, ovarian and other cancers. The global immunohistochemistry market was valued at USD 1.89 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.4% from 2022 to 2030. Hospitals and diagnostic laboratories dominated the market and accounted for the largest share of more than 70.5% of revenue.

North America was the largest geographic segment accounting for 38.5% share. The skin cancer diagnostics market size is expected to be worth USD 5.8 billion by 2028, with the melanoma segment representing USD 2 billion In 2020, an estimated 324,635 people were diagnosed with melanoma globally and an estimated 57,043 people worldwide died from melanoma in the same year. SubB2M is an engineered protein that specifically detects the pancancer biomarker Neu5Gc that is found at elevated levels in multiple human cancers.

INOVIQ is developing SubB2Mbased tests for multiple uses including monitoring of breast and ovarian cancers, and for a general health panel.