Developing tumour-tissue tests to guide lung cancer immunotherapy selection
People with non-small cell lung cancer can receive immunotherapy without knowing whether their tumour is likely to respond. Ineffective treatment exposes patients to toxicity and can delay other care, while existing tests may miss biological features associated with resistance and relapse.
Ninsun Biotech is developing NinStem Lung to help clinicians assess tumour aggressiveness and select immunotherapy. The tissue test measures cancer stem cells, with its ability to predict treatment response being evaluated in a retrospective clinical study.
What stands out about Ninsun Biotech
Ninsun reached the midpoint of a retrospective Institut Curie study testing whether cancer stem cell abundance predicts immunotherapy resistance.
Source ↗A 2024 study of 221 lung cancer patients found a 2.1-fold death hazard in an early-stage subgroup with high assay staining.
Source ↗Ninsun won CHF 10,000 in first-stage Venture Kick support in November 2025 for its cancer stem cell-based lung-cancer testing venture.
Source ↗Ninsun established operations at BioArk in Monthey and joined The Ark Foundation’s startup incubator within the Valais life-sciences ecosystem.
Source ↗Co-Founder Vincent Carré previously co-founded and led Carcidiag Biotechnologies, whose cancer-testing research won an i-Lab award in 2017.
Source ↗Carré co-authored the 2024 British Journal of Cancer study evaluating lectin-based cancer stem cell detection in 221 lung cancer patients.
Source ↗Ninsun reports granted patents covering its cancer stem cell technology across Europe and North America.
Source ↗Ninsun collaborates with HES-SO Valais-Wallis on preclinical studies of lectin-based drug conjugates, funded by Innosuisse.
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