Lung cancer could be spotted and treated more quickly thanks to a €12 million (£10m~) investment in technology aiming to diagnose and treat disease in just minutes.

The investment has led to the launch of Prothea Technologies Ltd., a spinout company from the University of Edinburgh and Bath, which is developing tech to “see and treat” diseased tissue in a single procedure.

Financing for Prothea was co-led by European firms Earlybird Venture Capital and Mérieux Equity Partners, with participation from NRW Bank as well as Old College Capital, the University of Edinburgh’s venture investment fund.

The team behind Prothea say that its technology could cut hospital pressures and waiting times, ave pave the way for diagnosis and treatment to be carried out in one hospital visit.

Currently, patients that are suspected to have early-stage lung cancer undergo screening tests, followed up by scans and biopsies of suspicious tissue. This approach can be slow and inaccurate.

Prothea’s new tech includes a fibre-optic endoscope, allowing bioposes to be taken through a tiny camera tube, and an ultrafast imaging and data capture tool, offering live insights into the molecular make-up of cells, making it easier to quickly spot disease and treat it in the same procedure.

Lung cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK, with more than 48,000 new cases diagnosed per year. Nine in 10 patients do not survive more than 10 years, with survival rates remaining low for the last five decades.

The launch of Prothea comes after 10 years of cross-discipline research on lung disease at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Inflammation Research, together with key colleagues across the university and partners including Heriot-Watt, Dundee, and Durham universities.

Prothea is one of numerous spinout companies launched from the University of Edinburgh in recent years, with support from Edinburgh Innovation, its commercialisation service.

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Speaking on the spinout’s mission and its launch, Professor Kev Dhaliwal, co-founder and chief science and medical officer at Prothea, said: “Lung disease is a global health challenge with patients urgently needing quicker diagnostics and faster and more effective treatments.

“We hope that our new technologies will improve the early diagnosis and cure of lung cancer and improve the outlook for patients and their families.

“Prothea is the result of many years of a collaborative team effort with deep tech approaches and we can’t wait to get started on developing these innovations further.”

Dr John Lonsdale, the head of enterprise at Edinburgh Innovation, also commented on Prothea: “Its journey so far has shaped pioneering science into a tangible solution for crucial unmet clinical needs.

“Edinburgh Innovations is delighted to have supported that journey, and we look forward to seeing Prothea move into its next chapter: to transform the lives of patients and their families.”