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PAVmed Subsidiary Lucid Diagnostics Announces Launch of VA EsoGuard® Study
Cleveland VA enrolls first patient in DoD-funded study of EsoGuard’s impact in improving efficiency and cost-effectiveness of early detection of esophageal
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[{"type":"text","content":"\nCleveland VA enrolls first patient in DoD-funded study of EsoGuard’s impact in improving efficiency and cost-effectiveness of early detection of esophageal precancer\n\n NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nLucid Diagnostics Inc. (Nasdaq: LUCD) (“Lucid”) a commercial-stage cancer prevention medical diagnostics company, and majority-owned subsidiary of PAVmed Inc. (Nasdaq: PAVM, PAVMZ) (“PAVmed”), today announced that investigators at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (“Cleveland VA”) have enrolled their first patient in a Department of Defense (“DoD”) funded study of its EsoGuard® Esophageal DNA Test (“EsoGuard”) in at-risk patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (“GERD”). Cleveland VA gastroenterologist Katarina B. Greer, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, is serving as the study’s principal investigator. Lucid is providing EsoCheck® Esophageal Cell Collection Devices (“EsoCheck”) for the study and will perform EsoGuard testing on the samples collected.\n\n“We are proud to be partnering with Dr. Greer and the Cleveland VA on this important investigator-initiated clinical study,” said Lishan Aklog, M.D., Lucid’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “The study will add important clinical evidence on the impact of EsoGuard in enhancing early detection of esophageal precancer to prevent esophageal cancer deaths by reserving endoscopy for those with a positive EsoGuard test.”\n\n“Despite strong clinical practice guideline recommendations, endoscopy has had limited success as a widespread screening tool for Barrett’s Esophagus (BE), a precursor for esophageal adenocarcinoma, a highly lethal form of esophageal cancer,” said Dr. Greer. “We hope to demonstrate that a strategy which incorporates initial office-based non-endoscopic testing of at-risk patients with EsoGuard improve the yield of endoscopy and overall cost-effectiveness.”\n\nTraditional, invasive upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (EGD) is performed in less than 10% of at-risk GERD patients recommended for esophageal precancer (BE) screening. Of those who do undergo EGD screening, over 80% have a negative result, exposing the vast majority of these patients to a complex, invasive, costly, and inconvenient procedure requiring anesthesia at a specialized procedure center or hospital...