Q&A with Kevin Hershberger of Lumicell, Inc.

The entire surgical treatment protocol is designed around complete removal of cancerous tumor. Incomplete tumor resection has been shown to double the risk of recurrence. However, the current standard of care has well known, clinically proven limitations including – roughly 30% of all patients need to have a second surgery to ensure clean margins, and 19% of the time residual cancerous tissue is missed. The Lumicell DVS is the first and only solution designed to assist the surgeon in real time, intracavity identification and removal of cancerous tissue that would otherwise require a second surgery to remove or would be completely missed and potentially lead to recurrence.

1) The agent mode of action –LUMISIGHT, the optical imaging agent is activated by the body’s host immune response to cancer. Unlike many other imaging agents that target certain receptors and are by nature limited to cancers with those receptors, LUMISIGHT is truly pan-cancerous because the body’s host immune response to solid tumor cancers is universal.

2) Intra-Cavity Imaging – The Lumicell DVS is the only technology that looks directly inside the surgical cavity – where it matters.

3) Fits seamlessly into the surgical workflow – The Lumicell solution fits into the current workflow. The imaging agent is administered 2 hours before surgery in a simple 3-minute IV push and the imaging and removing residual cancer takes less than 10 minutes after primary tumor removal.

Lumicell is building the company to fill this critical need in breast cancer surgery. The company is planning to achieve greater than $300M in annual revenue by year five. In the Med-tech industry exit discussions, either IPO or M&A, typically center around 4-6 quarters of strong sequential growth. In this breast cancer space, there are multiple large medical device companies that are likely M&A partners with which Lumicell continues to have regular discussions.