A British company is poised to work with Kansas University on refining a new blood-testing procedure – one that officials say is capable of detecting breast cancer as many as two years earlier than conventional methods.

KU officials today are set to announce an arrangement with OncImmune Ltd., a three-year-old company spun out of research from scientists at Nottingham University in England.

In December 2005, OncImmune secured what the company called a “substantial round” of private financing to develop its targeted products and, if justified, bring them to market.

Now it’s poised to set up North American operations in Lenexa, using a commercial lab and tapping into research expertise at Kansas University.

Officials with KU and the Kansas City Area Development Council have scheduled a 10 a.m. announcement at the KU Medical Center, a gathering that Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is slated to attend.

“This is another exciting new technology that the Kansas Bioscience Authority sees as promising,” said Clay Blair, the authority’s chairman, who confirmed Monday night that the authority would contribute financing for the company’s planned test-validation research at KU. “It represents a collaboration between the University of Kansas and private enterprise, seeking to commercialize research at KU and spur economic development in the state of Kansas.”

The company bills the serum-based screening test as appropriate for early detection of breast cancer. What makes the OncImmune test unique, they say, is its high sensitivity and a “uniquely low” false-positive rate.

Blood can be drawn at a doctor’s office and sent out for testing, and the test can be used with diagnostic equipment routinely found in hospital laboratories, OncImmune said. The test has been patented, and further tests are being developed for bladder, ovarian, prostrate, colorectal and other cancers.