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Organization, Description of the Business and Liquidity
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2017
Organization, Description of the Business and Liquidity [Abstract]  
Organization, Description of the Business and Liquidity
1. Organization, Description of the Business and Liquidity

OncoCyte Corporation ("OncoCyte") is a developer of novel, non-invasive blood-based tests for the early detection of cancer. It is focused on developing molecular cancer diagnostics utilizing a discovery platform that focuses on identifying genetic markers that are differentially expressed in certain types of cancers. OncoCyte efforts have focused on developing diagnostic tests for use in detecting lung, bladder, and breast cancers. During 2017, OncoCyte devoted substantially all of its efforts on developing its lung cancer diagnostic test DetermaVu™.
 
OncoCyte was incorporated in 2009 in the state of California and at December 31, 2016 was a majority-owned subsidiary of BioTime, Inc. ("BioTime"), a publicly traded, clinical-stage, biotechnology company targeting degenerative diseases primarily in the fields of ophthalmology, aesthetics and cell/drug delivery. Beginning on February 17, 2017, OncoCyte ceased to be a subsidiary of BioTime for financial reporting purposes when BioTime's percentage ownership of outstanding OncoCyte common stock declined below 50% as a result of the issuance of additional OncoCyte common stock to certain investors who exercised OncoCyte stock purchase warrants (see Note 6).

Liquidity

For all periods presented, OncoCyte generated no revenues. Since inception, OncoCyte has financed its operations through the sale of its common stock and warrants, warrant exercises, a bank loan (see Note 5), and sales of BioTime common shares that OncoCyte holds as available-for-sale securities. BioTime has also provided OncoCyte with the use of BioTime facilities and services under a Shared Facilities and Services Agreement as described in Note 4. OncoCyte has incurred operating losses and negative cash flows since inception, and had an accumulated deficit of $54.7 million and $35.3 million as December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.
 
At December 31, 2017, OncoCyte had $7.6 million of cash and cash equivalents and held BioTime common shares as available-for-sale securities valued at $0.8 million. Based on cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale securities currently on hand, including the $8.0 million in gross proceeds from the private placement completed on March 28, 2018, and the $2.0 million irrevocably committed to OncoCyte on or prior to April 30, 2018 (see Note 10), OncoCyte believes it has sufficient cash, cash equivalents, available-for-sale securities and working capital to carry out its current operations through at least twelve months from the issuance date of the financial statements included herein, but will need to raise additional capital if it determines to devote more resources to the development or initial commercialization efforts for its lung cancer test during that time frame.

OncoCyte plans to continue to invest significant resources in research and development in the field of molecular cancer diagnostics. OncoCyte expects to continue to incur operating losses and negative cash flows. If results of OncoCyte's research and development efforts, including the results of validation studies of its lung cancer test, DetermaVu™, are successful to the point where OncoCyte believes that a commercial product can be launched successfully, additional capital will be required to develop a sales and marketing team to market DetermaVu™ and to hire additional administrative personnel for patient billing and reimbursement procedures. OncoCyte will also need to raise additional capital in subsequent years to develop and launch additional diagnostic tests, for working capital, and for other expenses, until such time as it is able to generate sufficient revenues from the commercialization of its diagnostic tests to finance its operations. Delays in the development or commercialization of DetermaVu™ could prevent OncoCyte from raising, when needed, sufficient additional capital to finance the completion of development and commercial launch of DetermaVu™ or the other cancer diagnostic tests that OncoCyte is developing. The unavailability or inadequacy of financing or revenues to meet future capital needs could force OncoCyte to modify, curtail, delay, or suspend some or all aspects of its planned operations. Sales of additional equity securities could result in the dilution of the interests of its shareholders. OncoCyte cannot assure that adequate financing will be available on favorable terms, if at all.