CanSense

CanSense is a spin-out company formed at Swansea University in 2017. Founded by Professor Dean Harris (surgeon), Professor Peter Dunstan (physicist), Dr Cerys Jenkins (physicist) and Dr Adam Bryant (CEO), CanSense brings together a team of dedicated, enthusiastic, and passionate clinicians, scientists, technologists and business experts, working on new innovative and more accurate diagnostic tests for the early detection of bowel cancer which is Wales' 2nd leading cause of cancer death.

Over half of all bowel cancer patients in Wales are diagnosed when the cancer is at an advanced stage which makes it harder to treat, manage and cure. The CanSense team have used a multidisciplinary approach that uses physics, biology, chemistry and artificial intelligence to develop a highly sensitive blood test that can detect a growing bowel tumour at an early stage.

The Raman blood test they have developed is a simple test that can accurately rule bowel cancer in or out and can be undertaken in a GP surgery where up to 90% of all cancer patients will go when they first have symptoms. The test is being prepared for implementation into the Welsh NHS within the next 2-3 years and will transform how bowel cancer is diagnosed across Wales, leading to more lives being saved.