Press
Room
bioTheranostics Announces Publication of Study with Baylor College of Medicine Demonstrating a Novel Two-Gene Ratio Is a Prognostic Indicator of Breast Cancer Recurrence Risk
Carlsbad, CA, October 12, 2006 – bioTheranostics, a leader in molecular cancer profiling, announced today
that a study, conducted in collaboration with Baylor College
of Medicine, further demonstrated the clinical utility of two
novel genes for the identification of patients at higher risk
for early breast cancer recurrence. This study has been published
in the October issue of Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The 852-patient retrospective study confirms
the original discovery of the two-gene ratio of HOXB13/IL17BR
(H/I) as an independent prognostic marker for risk of recurrence
in tamoxifen-treated, estrogen receptor positive (ER+) and
lymph node negative patients. Beyond this, the study
results also extend the prognostic utility of the H/I ratio
to untreated patients. Therefore, it has been established
that the H/I ratio is a strong independent prognostic marker
in patients with or without anti-hormonal treatment.
“The study with Baylor College
of Medicine is the third in a series of clinical studies conducted
to validate the clinical utility of the H/I ratio as a very
significant prognostic biomarker in ER+ breast cancer patients,” said
Antonius Schuh, Chief Executive Officer of bioTheranostics. “We
are excited about the rapidly growing body of evidence supporting
the clinical utility of HOXB13 and IL17BR in the prediction
of breast cancer recurrence risk and expect additional clinical
data to be published in the near future.”
"Breast cancer patients face a number
of difficult decisions when it comes to making choices about
treatment," said Richard A. Bender, M.D., F.A.C.P, Medical
Director for Oncology, Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute
and Adjunct Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California,
Irvine School of Medicine. "An H/I ratio can help doctors
and estrogen-receptor positive, node-negative patients make
more informed decisions on how aggressively to manage this
complex disease."
bioTheranostics discovered both biomarkers in a
collaborative study with Harvard Medical School and Mass. General
Hospital, which was published in the June 2004 issue of Cancer
Cell. As a result
of this study, these two biomarkers serve as the foundation
of the AviaraDx Breast Cancer Profiling (BCP) Technology. In
April of 2006 a collaborative study with Mayo Clinic, showing
significant clinical utility of H/I in patients treated with
tamoxifen, was published in Clinical Cancer Research.
Breast cancer is diagnosed in over 200,000
women and claims the lives of over 40,000 each year in the
United States alone. Approximately 70% of breast cancers
are estrogen receptor positive, and most of these are early
stage (lymph node negative).
About bioTheranostics
bioTheranostics, is focused on developing and commercializing
molecular diagnostic technologies for personalized medicine
in cancer treatment. The company is targeting the oncology
market with three first-in-class molecular cancer profiling
technologies: Molecular Cancer Identification (MCID), Breast
Cancer Profiling (BCP) and Drug Response Profiling (DRP). bioTheranostics
has licensed its technologies for specific clinical indications
to Quest Diagnostics, Laboratory Corporation of America and
Agendia BV. The Company anticipates operating its own CLIA
certified diagnostic laboratory in early 2007 to complement
its current partner offerings. Please visit the bioTheranostics
website at http://www.biotheranostics.com for
more information.
| TOP |
|
