Assays / Cancer antigens

Cancer antigens

PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) — Quantitative Fluorescent Assay

PSA is OncoFirm’s second cancer program, designed to run on the same handheld reader and strip format as CEA and return a quantitative total PSA value in minutes.

Second programIn development

At a glance

Target

Total prostate-specific antigen (PSA)

Sample

Serum, plasma or fingerstick whole blood

Readout

Quantitative, ng/mL — designed measuring range 0.5–50 ng/mL

Calibration

Planned traceability to WHO reference material NIBSC 17/100

Why it matters

Clinical context

PSA testing supports shared decisions about prostate cancer screening and is used to monitor men after diagnosis or treatment. A single value rarely tells the whole story; clinicians look at the level, how it changes over time and the patient’s risk factors. That makes a consistent, quantitative result more useful than a qualitative cut-off.

How OncoFirm will measure it

Built on the OncoFirm fluorescent platform

One reader, two cancer markers

PSA is designed to share the reader, strip architecture and software with CEA, so adding it does not require new equipment.

A strip that checks itself

Every strip carries a fluorescent reference line of known brightness. Reading the test line against it corrects for reader and temperature drift, and the reader flags runs that did not flow correctly.

A traceable digital record

Each result is stored with the date, operator and lot, ready to share with a clinic record or laboratory system instead of being retyped by hand.

Where it's headed

Development roadmap

01

Feasibility

Antibody pairs, fluorescent conjugates and strip layout are selected and tested against the target.

02

Assay development

Strip, reagents and reader settings are optimized, and pilot lots are built.

Current focus

03

Analytical validation

Precision, linearity, interference and lot-to-lot consistency are measured against reference methods.

Next

04

Clinical evaluation and launch

Performance is evaluated with clinical samples. First release is planned for research use only, followed by regulatory submissions.

Next

Development follows the CEA program and reuses its reference-line calibration approach.

Development status. This assay and the OncoFirm platform are in development. They have not been cleared or approved by the FDA and are not available for sale. First products are planned for research use only. Descriptions reflect design goals, not demonstrated performance.

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