ISNES, Belgium /PRNewswire/ -- VolitionRx Limited (NYSE AMERICAN: VNRX) ("Volition") today announced that the 3-year sample collection has been completed in the prospective study undertaken in collaboration with the University of Oxford, England to assess Volition's proprietary Nu.Q™ platform technology for the diagnosis of endometriosis through a simple blood test. Volition has now commenced running its discovery grade assays through the cohorts and expects to report preliminary data over the coming months.

Dr. Jake Micallef, Volition's Chief Scientific Officer, commented "Endometriosis is a potentially debilitating inflammatory condition in which the endometrial tissue that normally lines the inside of the uterus, grows outside the uterus, typically damaging the ovaries, fallopian tubes or other tissues of the pelvic cavity. Volition owns patents in the detection of endometriosis using nucleosome assays and we look forward to investigating the use of Nu.Q^TM technology in this large patient cohort."

Early detection and diagnosis of endometriosis remains one of the most important unaddressed medical needs in women's health. Endometriosis is the leading cause of female infertility, is extremely painful and affects huge numbers of women – up to 10% of women of reproductive age. Endometriosis is still currently diagnosed surgically by laparoscopy and the time from presentation to diagnosis is typically 8-10 years.  Volition believes that the existing methodology for detection demonstrates a clear need for a reliable non-invasive diagnostic.

Collection of the samples was led by Professors Christian Becker and Krina Zondervan of the Nuffield Department of Women's and Reproductive Health, University of Oxford, who are also co-Directors of the Oxford Endometriosis Care and Research Centre (CaRe). Blood samples were collected prospectively from 350 patients over a period of more than 3 years following the Endometriosis Phenome and Biobanking Harmonisation Project (EPHect) guidelines supported by the World Endometriosis Research Foundation (WERF). Differences in circulating nucleosomes will be evaluated between women and across the menstrual cycle using Volition's Nu.Q^TM technology platform.

Professor Becker said: "We are looking forward to the results of this study which very much complements our ongoing efforts at the Oxford Endometriosis CaRe Centre of identifying non-invasive biomarkers for endometriosis which we believe will be an essential step towards improved patient diagnosis and care."

Cameron Reynolds, Chief Executive Officer of Volition, commented "We are delighted to be working with the Oxford Endometriosis CaRe Centre. We hope to build on our ongoing Nu.Q^TM work in cancer screening by exploring important disease applications beyond cancer to demonstrate the breadth of our Nu.Q^TM technology with our newly improved assays."