US-based biotechnology company Pillar Biosciences Inc announced on Wednesday a collaboration with LC-SCRUM-Asia, a lung cancer screening project, and LSI Medience Corporation, a Japanese subsidiary of PHC Holdings Corporation, to support genomic screening of blood-based samples from patients with lung cancer as part of the LC-SCRUM-Asia project in Japan.

Following approval of a revision to the LC-SCRUM-Asia project protocol, the participating organisations plan to begin testing in August 2026. The project is expected to include approximately 2,000 patients over a two-year period.

Pillar's oncoReveal Essential+ assay has been validated at LSI Medience for use as a screening test for circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and cell-free RNA (cfRNA) samples collected from patients with lung cancer participating in the LC-SCRUM-Asia project. Testing will be performed by LSI Medience to support identification of genomic alterations relevant to the project's research objectives.

Liquid biopsy testing can enable genomic analysis from blood samples when tissue is limited or when a minimally invasive sampling approach is desirable. By combining analysis of cfDNA and cfRNA, the LC-SCRUM-Asia project is designed to support broad screening for genomic alterations in patients with lung cancer.

Pillar said that the planned use of oncoReveal Essential+ within the LC-SCRUM-Asia project reflects the assay's ability to support targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis from blood-based specimens within a decentralised laboratory workflow.