Photo: SurViva

SurViva joins Oslo Cancer Cluster

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Surviva

Meet the newest member of Oslo Cancer Cluster – SurViva, a Norwegian consultancy providing quality guidance for life science companies.

“Cancer research is one of SurViva’s strategic areas of focus, as this is an area where Norway clearly has the potential to develop innovative treatments and value-creating businesses. SurViva is joining Oslo Cancer Cluster to offer our comprehensive Quality package enabling businesses to more efficiently turn great science into lifesaving products,” said Astrid Hilde Myrset, CEO of SurViva.

SurViva is a small Norwegian consultancy offering services including quality assurance (QA) and customised digital quality management systems (eQMS) to health start-ups.

“Quality assurance and the establishment of a quality management system may represent a significant hurdle for small developing companies. Historically, the solution for the individual company has been to employ a QA in a 100% position. A newly hired QA is often alone, may have limited experience, and can easily end up creating resource-intensive systems that can grow out of proportion and require an unnecessary amount of time and expense for the company,” said Myrset.

Focus on quality

SurViva works to grow a pool of quality expertise available for several companies in parallel, to accelerate product development and promote industrial growth.

“In this way, the individual company can get started with its quality system at the right time and have flexible access to qualified resources at any time throughout the development process. When desirable, own QA personnel may be hired, and by having access to a competence pool, it will be easier to make smart choices based on shared experiences and expertise,” said Myrset.

Helping developing companies

SurViva became a member of Oslo Cancer Cluster in September 2023 to contribute to the organisation’s vision of accelerating cancer treatments and diagnostics that improve patients’ lives.

“We think our vision is very well aligned with Oslo Cancer Cluster’s vision. Our Quality package will save time and costs for developing companies, and thus enable accelerated development of new cancer treatments,” said Myrset.

 

The post SurViva joins Oslo Cancer Cluster first appeared on Oslo Cancer Cluster.

Eivind Hovig, Professor at the Department of Bioinformatics at the University of Oslo, is one of the co-authors behind the research article published in MDPI Cancer.

New research on genetic risk and breast cancer

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How a simple saliva test can reveal the risk of breast cancer in the Norwegian population.

A study by the University of Oslo, Oslo University Hospital and OÜ Antegenes looking into Polygenic Risk Scores (PRS) and breast cancer in Norway was recently published in the journal MDPI Cancer. PRS technology is a type of genetic test that can reveal an individual’s risk of developing cancer.

“The study was initiated to assess the possibility of using a combination of genetic markers for a given woman here in Norway to predict the risk of developing breast cancer over her life,” said Eivind Hovig, Professor at the Department of Bioinformatics at the University of Oslo, and one of the co-authors to the article.

Early detection

Every year, there are close to 4 200 new breast cancer cases and almost 600 deaths from breast cancer in Norway, according to reports from the Norwegian Cancer Registry. Early detection is crucial for survival, but almost 40 per cent of breast cancer cases are not diagnosed at an early stage.

“The results indeed indicate that it is entirely feasible to apply such a predictor meaningfully in a Norwegian context,” said Hovig.

Personalised screening

Current breast cancer screening in Norway is implemented for women at age 50-69, but approximately 20 per cent of breast cancer cases are diagnosed in younger women. These tests can potentially be used to identify younger women with a higher risk and lead to a more personalised screening approach.

“As the application of such a predictor may have implications for management of patients with high risk scores, it may lead to different screening strategies and a better understanding of the risk profiles of these patients,” added Hovig.

The PRS test used in the study was developed by the Estonian company Antegenes. The study was conducted as a part of AnteNOR, a project that investigates how PRS can be implemented for prevention and early detection of breast cancer in Norway.

The post New research on genetic risk and breast cancer first appeared on Oslo Cancer Cluster.