The Volpara Health Technologies Ltd (ASX: VHT) share price is on course to record a strong gain on Thursday.
In morning trade, the healthcare technology company's shares are up a solid 4% to $1.35.
Today's gain means that the Volpara share price has now risen by over 18% since this time last year.
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Why is the Volpara share price storming higher today?
Investors have been buying Volpara's shares today after it announced the publication of the results of the second round of Project DENSE in Radiology.
The DENSE trial, which is based in the Netherlands, started collecting patients 10 years ago. It is the first randomised controlled study on the clinical utility of breast MRI supplemental screening for women with extremely dense breasts. The study is using the company's Volpara Density software to assess breast density.
The first results from DENSE trial in December 2019 showed a significant reduction in interval cancers in those women being selected for breast MRI using Volpara Density, but with a relatively high false-positive rate.
Second time around, although the incremental cancer detection rate was lower than that of the first round, the false-positive rate was only 26.3 versus 79.8 per 1000 screening examinations.
Volpara's CEO Dr Ralph Highnam was pleased with the results and particularly the reduction in false positives being reported.
He said: "The first results from DENSE showed a dramatic decrease in the number of interval cancers by varying screening based upon VolparaDensity. These follow-up results demonstrate that as screening programs settle into these new protocols, the number of false positives is significantly reduced and makes the new protocol much more viable."
"We are incredibly proud to be part of this work, which has been a 10-year journey for us and the investigators but is showing a real benefit to women," Dr Highnam concluded.
