IRR spinout Prothea presents first in-human study results

Cancer therapy company Prothea Technologies, a spinout of IRR, has presented clinical trial results showing the potential for its imaging technology to provide molecular guidance during bronchoscopy.

Prothea span out of IRR’s Baillie Gifford Pandemic Science Hub in 2025 with two technologies promising to see and treat lung cancer in one hospital visit.

Prothea’s technology combines microscopic optical fibres, fluorescence imaging and biopsy instruments. The system aims to capture detailed, real-time images of tissue at a molecular level and has been designed to differentiate normal from abnormal tissue in the body. This ensures the biopsy sample is sufficient - for diagnostic purposes or for obtaining the molecular data essential for guiding therapies.

The Precision Lung feasibility study prospectively enrolled 21 patients undergoing bronchoscopy for suspected lung malignancy. The investigational imaging system combined a single-use 1.9 mm-diameter imaging and access catheter with molecular imaging.

The study was testing safety, procedural success and change in molecular signature at a malignant lesion, measured with fluorescence imaging technology.

A significant change in the molecular signature was observed in 17 out of 18 of the malignant lesions, replicating the findings of the published pre-clinical research.

Imaging was successfully acquired at the target lesion in every patient, across all regions of the lung, with no device-related adverse events. The technology integrated well into the bronchoscopy workflow and the fluorescence imaging technology added only less than five minutes to each procedure. The imaging and access catheter was also compatible with standard biopsy instruments.

In one case, a biopsy sample was evaluated immediately after collection on site, which confirmed the biopsy was viable post-bronchoscopy.

While most patients were treated under local anaesthetic, one patient was treated under general anaesthetic, and a cryobiopsy – collecting tissue samples by freezing them - was successfully performed.

Members of Prothea are standing in discussion, whilst looking at a screen at a conference stall — (L-R) Prothea's Professor Kev Dhaliwal, Dr Adam Marshall and Jim Stone at the at the 9th Annual Conference of the American Association for Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology.

These first-in-human results provide compelling evidence that our technology can detect meaningful differences between malignant and normal lung tissue, without the need for exogenous labels.
We believe that this approach will not only improve confidence in cancer detection and characterisation, but also deliver more precise, molecularly-guided bronchoscopic biopsy and ablation treatment.

The Precision Lung study was co-sponsored by the University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian. Prothea Technologies supplied the investigational imaging system through a research collaboration with IRR’s Baillie Gifford Pandemic Science Hub, where Professor Dhaliwal is Chair of Molecular Imaging and Healthcare Technology.

It’s extremely encouraging to see these initial results from Prothea’s in-human study. Lung cancer deaths remain horribly high due to late diagnosis, so being able to detect and treat at the same time could be game-changing.

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