TLDR
- VolitionRx (VNRX) stock surged over 70% in pre-market trading on Wednesday
- The company says it isolated more than 99% pure circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) from blood samples
- The method, called Capture-Seq™, uses a two-step process combining physical enrichment and bioinformatics
- Results showed 49/49 cancers detected in one blinded cohort, and 13/14 in a second
- The company cited a combined total addressable market of ~$36 billion and is in talks with potential licensing partners
VNRX stock jumped more than 70% in pre-market trading on Wednesday after VolitionRx announced what it described as a major step forward in liquid biopsy technology.
The company said it had successfully isolated circulating tumor-derived DNA (ctDNA) from blood samples at a purity level exceeding 99%. That means nearly all non-cancer DNA was removed, leaving behind an almost clean sample of tumor DNA.
The core challenge in liquid biopsy has always been that most DNA floating in blood comes from healthy cells, not cancer cells. Getting a clean signal from the cancer cells is extremely difficult. Volition says its new method solves that problem.
The technique, called Capture-Seq™, works in two steps. First, it physically enriches the sample. Then advanced bioinformatics clears out the remaining noise. The result, the company says, is a dataset that is more than 99% pure ctDNA.
Chief Scientific Officer Jake Micallef called it “a world-first.” He said that CTCF-bound DNA — the specific DNA marker the method targets — is nearly absent in healthy plasma but almost entirely cancer-derived in cancer patients.
“Removal of background normal cell free DNA from the blood to reveal this level of tumor derived DNA has been a long-term goal of liquid biopsy,” Micallef said in the company’s release.
Detection Results From Blinded Cohorts
The company reported results from two blinded cohort studies. In the first, the method detected 49 out of 49 cancer cases. In the second, it detected 13 out of 14.
Those numbers are early-stage, and the cohorts are small. Larger studies will be needed before any commercial rollout. The method also captures only a subset of ctDNA, which means some tumor fragments could still be missed.
Volition submitted an updated manuscript to Research Square, a preprint platform. The paper has not yet gone through peer review, which is a standard step before results are accepted by the broader scientific community.
Market and Commercial Context
Volition cited a combined total addressable market of approximately $36 billion, covering both multi-cancer early detection (MCED) and minimal residual disease (MRD) monitoring.
The company said it is currently in active discussions with potential diagnostic licensing partners. No deals have been announced.
VNRX stock was on track to close above its 100-day moving average for the first time since October 8, 2025, if pre-market gains held into the regular session.
The updated preprint is expected to be published on Research Square shortly, according to the company.
