Ferronova Announces Promising Results from Lymph Node Mapping Trial

KYOTO, Japan, Sept. 16, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- Australian medical technology company Ferronova has announced preliminary results from a 62-patient trial investigating the use of a nanoparticle-based platform to assist in the identification of sentinel lymph nodes in patients with gastric and oesophageal cancer. The findings were presented at the 22nd ISDE World Congress for Esophageal Diseases in Kyoto, Japan, by principal investigator Dr Markus Trochsler.

The trial, known as MAGMAP, evaluated the safety and feasibility of using FerroTrace® to identify sentinel nodes in patients undergoing surgery for gastric and oesophageal cancers. Dr Trochsler, who leads the Upper Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Surgery Unit at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide, reported that the nanoparticle was administered to 62 patients without any toxicity-related adverse events.

In a subset of 24 patients considered potentially suitable for a de-escalated surgical approach, 18 had pre-operative chemotherapy. Sentinel nodes were identified in 23 of these patients, with a 96% identification rate. Notably, there were no false negatives among the seven node-positive patients evaluated, and the patient-level negative predictive value of sentinel node pathology was 100%.

For 26 patients with gastric-oesophageal junction or distal oesophageal cancers, 10 were found to be node positive. The FerroTrace sentinel node drainage direction corresponded to the positive node direction in all 10 patients. Additionally, of 19 patients with Siewert Type I or II cancers, seven had drainage confirmed to the gastric lymphatic basin, suggesting potential for less extensive surgery in selected patients.

Overall, 68% of patients had at least one identified sentinel lymph node outside the tissue removed using standard of care surgery. Dr Trochsler noted that while using radioisotopes and dyes for lymph node identification is already a standard of care in breast cancer and melanoma, efforts to translate this technology to gastric and oesophageal cancer patients, who typically undergo chemotherapy or radiotherapy before surgery, have been unsuccessful to date.

Ferronova's CEO, Mr Stewart Bartlett, expressed optimism about the potential of this technology to improve patient outcomes. "The absence of false negatives and the high negative predictive value observed in this preliminary cohort of patients with earlier-stage disease are encouraging and suggest the potential to minimise surgery in selected patients. Future research will build on these findings by investigating a larger patient cohort."

The company's mission is to improve treatment options in early-stage, complex cancers and increase survival rates with its unique surgical oncology marker system. Ferronova's shareholders include Renew Pharmaceuticals Limited, Uniseed/UniSuper, the South Australian Venture Capital Fund, Artesian Venture Partners, the University of South Australia, Powerhouse Ventures, the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, the University of Sydney, PAN Ventures, STOIC Venture Capital, and Perennial Partners Future of Healthcare Fund. Grant assistance has been provided by the SA Government since 2016 and through the Federal Government's BioMedTech Horizons Program, operated by MTPConnect and Australian Government CRC-P program. For more information, visit www.ferronova.com.au.