Life Length obtains European authorization for its innovative prostate cancer diagnostic test, PROSTAV®

PROSTAV® tiene por objeto mejorar sustancialmente el diagnóstico de cáncer de próstata; el más frecuente en los hombres que afectará hasta a 1 de cada 6 hombres a lo largo de sus vidas y que en España se cobrará la vida de unas 6.000 personas anualmente.

Following five years of clinical studies in Spain and the United States, Life Length, Spain’s most accredited and highly ranked laboratory (and the only U.S. Federal lab in the country) announced that it has received its Functional License from the Spanish Medical and Sanitary Products Agency (AEMPS in Spanish) along with the CE mark for its prostate cancer diagnostic assay, PROSTAV®.

The clinical studies have been carried out with leading hospitals and urology centers in Spain and the United States including the Centro Médico Quirúrgico LYX, the Spanish hospitals 12 de Octubre, Ramón y Cajal, Reina Sofía and Infanta Margarita; and the U.S. hospitals Urological Research Network and Houston Methodist.

PROSTAV® is a diagnostic blood test based on telomere measurement, an area in which Life Length is considered the world leader, offering its patented Telomere Analysis Technology® in diverse fields ranging from preventive and personalized medicine with HEALTHTAV® to the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmetic industries among others to clients in more than 35 countries.

PROSTAV’s purpose is to substantially improve prostate cancer diagnosis, the most frequent cancer which will afflict 1 in 6 men in their lifetime and from which, in Spain alone, approximately 6,000 men die annually. Currently, the most used diagnostic, PSA, generate false negative results in up to 80% of the cases. For this reason, hundreds of thousands of unnecessary biopsies are carried out each year in Europe alone; invasive, painful, costly procedures with potentially serious complications. PROSTAV seeks to eliminate more than 33% of these biopsies, avoiding this procedure for men who do not actually have cancer and generating a significant clinical benefit for these patients and substantial economic savings both for the public and private healthcare systems.

Stephen J. Matlin, CEO of Life Length stated, “As June 11th is the World Day of Prostate Cancer, we are very pleased to communicate that PROSTAV is now approved for use in the European Union. Thanks to our work together with the participating institutions, we have been able to demonstrate that, from a simple blood sample, we can detect alterations in telomere distribution in men that have prostate cancer. Together with our extensive clinical database and the algorithms that we have developed, this allows us to issue a Result’s Report with high levels of specificity and sensitivity.

Our test, the first in the world based on telomere variables authorized for clinical use in oncology, reflects our leadership in the sector and reaffirms the validity of our proprietary technology. We will continue to work in other areas of oncology and age-related diseases, where we believe we can bring additional clinically validated, innovative tests for improved diagnostics and healthcare globally.