Making lung cancer detection as easy as a Covid-19 test

Andrea Stephany Diaz was only 24 when she first had the idea for her start-up. Two years later, that idea is well on its way to becoming a gamechanger in health.

Lung cancer is one of the most diagnosed cancers in the world, and the most common cause of cancer deaths. But unlike other leading forms of cancer, such as breast cancer, the one affecting lungs is not as straightforward to screen: often being diagnosed at advanced stages when treatment options are limited.

Existing methods to diagnose lung cancer include chest X-rays, CT scans and biopsies, all of which necessitate the patient to be in a hospital setting. But what if checking for lung cancer could be as easy as testing for Covid-19? That’s an idea the founder of our latest Start-up of the Week has set out to realise.

“Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death, and while multi-cancer early detection tests have gained attention in recent years, lung cancer specifically requires significant improvement – a challenge we are eager to tackle,” Andrea Stephany Diaz, CEO and co-founder of OncoSwab tells me.

How it started

Based in Corroux, Switzerland and established only last year, OncoSwab is developing a nasal swab test to detect lung cancer in the same way people tested for Covid-19 during the pandemic. This makes it compatible with at-home and point-of-care settings, potentially eliminating a major barrier to early lung cancer detection.

According to Diaz, who was only 24 when she came up with the idea two years ago, OncoSwab is about using the non-invasive nasal swab to detect biomarkers “right at the source” – which is the airway.

“We strongly believe this direct detection method has the potential to be more accurate compared to traditional blood-based tests. Designed for simplicity, it can be used both at home and in clinical settings, making it an accessible and cost-effective solution for early lung cancer screening,” she explains.

“We’re currently in the process of validating this innovative approach with top-tier hospitals and lung cancer experts in the US and Europe, aiming to revolutionise early detection and significantly improve patient outcomes.”

Originally from Venezuela, Diaz moved to Spain as a teenager. Ever since her high school days, she has been dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur in the healthcare sector with the mission to impact patients’ lives. This interest led her to get a master’s degree in molecular biotechnology and work on various projects across Europe, including genetic engineering for neurodegenerative diseases.

‘The Bay Area is, in my humble opinion, the best place to be as a founder’
^{– ANDREA DIAZ}

But it was not until an EU hackathon competition in 2022 that Diaz was actually bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. There, she met her co-founder Dr Pablo Lara, a pharmacologist from Leiden University with more than a decade’s experience in cancer research.

“Our paths crossed over our shared vision to make lung cancer screening as accessible as Covid-19 tests. At first, it was a crazy idea at a hackathon. But neither of us could stop thinking about it – what would lung…