Lucid Diagnostics is moving into the next phase of establishing testing centers for esophageal cancer.

The PavMed subsidiary said it was opening testing centers in Seattle, WA; Portland, OR; and Boise, ID. These three centers follow the Phoenix, AZ; Denver, CO; Salt Lake City, UT; and Las Vegas, NA sites the company announced in December.

Lucid’s centers will look at patients in these cities with Gastroesophageal reflux disease under an order from their physician or from a telemedicine physician provided to them after self-referral.

The reason why GERD is the focus is that millions of patients with the condition are at risk of developing esophageal precancer and a highly lethal form of esophageal cancer.

 More than 80% of esophageal cancer patients die within five years of diagnosis, making it the second most lethal cancer in the U.S. The mortality rate is high even in those diagnosed with early-stage esophageal cancer.

Lucid’s goal is to catch those patients early in the disease process, so intervention procedures have a greater chance.

The testing centers revolve around Lucid’s EsoCheck Cell Collection Device and the EsoGuard DNA Esophageal test.  The EsoCheck Cell Collection Device collects surface esophageal cells that are then sent to Lucid’s EsoGuard DNA Esophageal Test.

"This launch represents another important milestone for Lucid and our EsoGuard commercialization efforts," said Lishan Aklog, MD, Lucid’s chairman and CEO. "We now have completed the first stage of our Lucid Test Center program, an important pillar of our growth strategy—with test centers in seven metropolitan areas in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest".

The centers will be staffed with nursing practitioners, who will administer the test. Lucid executives estimate that a single nurse practitioners can perform up to twenty EsoCheck procedures per day and expects each center to cover its personnel and medical office lease costs with only a few tests per week.

Lucid was spun-out from PavMed and filed for an initial public offering in September of 2021. Aklog, who serves as CEO for both Lucid and PAVMed, spoke about both companies’ unique relationship in episode 29 of the Let’s Talk Medtech podcast.

“PavMed is a diversified medical technology company that’s active in … devices, diagnostics, and digital health,” Aklog said during the Let’s Talk Medtech podcast. “Lucid represented [PavMed’s] foray into the diagnostic space. Lucid was founded in 2018 by PavMed and PavMed has been the majority holder since then. Lucid had advanced its products to the commercial stage and reached a point last year where it was clear – we had a growth strategy and to implement that we had to raise growth capital. So, we decided to take Lucid public and raise capital within Lucid as a pureplay diagnostic company.”

See below for the full episode: