Singapore (February 10, 2015) – Vela Diagnostics announced today the CE-IVD launch of the Sentosa^® SQ Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) Panel for Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS)-based gene sequence variant detection and identification. This is the third in a series of NGS oncology panels from Vela Diagnostics, which recently launched the CE-IVD Sentosa^® SQ Melanoma Panel¹ and the CE-IVD Sentosa^® SQ Colorectal Cancer (CRC) Panel¹.

Lung cancer is the most prevalent cancer and the leading cause of cancer deaths in males, making up 17% of total new cancer cases and 23% of total cancer deaths worldwide.² Overall, the chance that a man will develop lung cancer in his lifetime is about 1 in 13; for a woman, the risk is about 1 in 16. These numbers include both smokers and non-smokers.³

Cancer is associated with various different genetic alterations leading to aberrant cell proliferation. New therapies are based on an improved understanding of these genetic alterations.⁴ Therefore, molecular classification of the tumors is becoming increasingly important to determine the right therapy for each individual patient.

Vela Diagnostics’ Sentosa^® SQ NSCLC Panel quickly and reliably identifies these cancer- causing mutations by simultaneous detection of 113 hot spots in 11 genes. It exhibits a Limit of Detection (LOD) of 5% with minimal DNA requirement of 5 ng per sample and has a clinical sensitivity of 100% (95% CI: 95% – 100%).