Swansea University spin-out MedTech company CanSense has developed a simple blood test to screen patients presenting to their GP with potential symptoms of bowel cancer.

The start-up has appointed a chairman to guide the company’s growth and development following a series of recent funding award wins.

CanSense’s simple blood test will help improve patient outcomes through the early detection of bowel cancer and Ian Smith joins the organisation as a non-executive director and chairman.

Ian has held several CEO and CFO roles in various technology sectors, in both venture capital backed and listed businesses and this extensive experience in company governance enhances the team’s expertise and in-depth knowledge.

Ian has business leadership experience in bio-technology, medical device research and development and at a medical software business which secured FDA approval for the digital aspects of a Nasdaq-listed customer’s diagnostic device for COVID testing.

He joins at a pivotal time for CanSense, which recently secured, as part of a partnership, nearly £500,000 from Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The award is part of a £30 million fund to advance life-changing cancer therapeutics delivered through the Biomedical Catalyst (BMC) programme.

CanSense's blood test is based on research by Professor Dean Harris, Professor Peter Dunstan and Dr Cerys Jenkins at Swansea University, which was part funded by Cancer Research Wales and Health and Care Research Wales.

Professors Harris and Dunstan and Dr Jenkins joined forces with former investment banker Dr Adam Bryant, who has a PhD in physics, and in 2019 set up CanSense as four co-founders and directors.

In a ground-breaking clinical trial last year involving 27 practices and 595 patients across West Wales, CanSense’s blood test demonstrated 95.7% overall sensitivity and performed better than FIT (Faecal Immunochemical Tests), identifying 79% of early cancers.

The test is in the final stages of development and CanSense could soon be working with Welsh GP surgeries to help alleviate traditional diagnostic pressures on the NHS, with this simple bowel cancer blood test to triage patients. CanSense then plans on nationwide expansion in the healthcare industry.

Ian says of this latest role with CanSense:

“The diagnostic test being developed by CanSense is genuinely game-changing and with the business led by a capable, committed and purpose-driven team, the potential to create a world-leading business in the field of early-stage cancer detection is real. I am delighted to be joining the board to help the team achieve this success.”

CanSense also won this year’s St David Award for Innovation, Science and Technology. Ian’s new role, along with the appointment of Jonathan Marlow and Mark Watson as fellow non-executive directors, takes the total team to 12 with a further 10 board members.

Bowel (colorectal) cancer is the biggest cause of cancer-related death in the Western world and the second most common cancer globally. It’s the second biggest cancer killer in Wales, where more than 2,300 people are diagnosed with the disease every year, and there are over 900 deaths.

Last month, the eligible age for people registered with a GP in Wales to be offered a self-screening kit for bowel cancer was lowered from 55-74 to include those aged 51-54.

This will be gradually offered across this younger age group over the next year and offered every two years.

Adam Bryant, CanSense’s CEO, said:

“It’s a great pleasure to be welcoming Ian to the Board. We are delighted to have someone with his knowledge, corporate and commercial experience to help us deliver our much-needed early detection of bowel cancer test to market.”

Part of CanSense’s most recent Innovate UK funding will be invested into a usability study on how clinicians and GPs want to receive test results, and how they will then instigate dialogue around bowel health with patients.

The second part of the funding will be invested into Health Economic Analysis and triaging long waiting lists for secondary care.

In December 2022, CanSense also raised £1.5m in equity seed investment from Mercia Asset Management, the Development Bank of Wales and liquid biopsy company Nonacus.

Successful clinical trials secured CanSense the support of Welsh Government’s Accelerated Growth Programme (AGP), which supports high growth businesses in Wales.

In January 2023, Moondance Cancer Initiative allocated Swansea Bay University Board half a million-pounds in funding to trial CanSense's test. Swansea Bay was one of seven NHS teams awarded the funding and is where Professor Dean Harris works as a colorectal surgeon.

Last year, support from Life Sciences Hub Wales enabled CanSense to secure an additional £1.2m from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to further develop the test.

Towards the end of 2022, CanSense was awarded funding by Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) Challenge Fund Endoscopy Challenge to develop two phases of a solution to this problem in the city and wider Cardiff and Vale Health Board area.

Dr Bryant emphasises:

“Traditional diagnostics services are under huge pressure post-Covid. Our blood test can provide a solution to long waiting lists and hopefully, over time, can help reduce them.  Only three per cent of those referred for a colonoscopy by their GP actually have cancer. It’s an inefficient pathway which is now at breaking point.

“We are offering a simple blood test which helps streamline the pathway for those people in the greatest need to be diagnosed and treated as quickly as possible – for a better patient outcome.”