Discovery of Blood Serum Biomarkers for Breast Cancer
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Power3 Medical Products, Inc. has announced that it has discovered a group of breast cancer protein biomarkers in preliminary studies of blood serum.
By monitoring the blood serum concentrations of these proteins and then subjecting the results to biostatistical analysis, scientists at Power3 believe they will be able to use these biomarkers to discriminate between three groups of women: women with breast cancer, women with benign breast disease, and normal women with no detectable breast cancer.
The total number of breast cancer patient and control blood serum samples under study in the Power3 laboratory includes over 500 retrospective and prospective samples.
Of these, 151 prospective samples are from patients enrolled in a breast cancer clinical validation study being conducted by Power3, comprising all categories of normal, benign and cancer samples, from women at three clinical sites: Mercy Women's Center in Oklahoma City, OK, Obstetrical and Gynecology Associates in Houston, TX, and NYU School of Medicine in NY, NY.
The initial study was performed with samples from 76 women. The results were then subjected to biostatistical analysis.
According to Dr. Ira L. Goldknopf, Chief Scientific Officer of Power3, "Of 76 samples used in the construction of the initial statistical model: all 18 normal women were correctly scored as normal, 32 of 33 women with breast cancer scored as having breast cancer and 1 scored as benign, and 23 of 25 women with benign breast disease scored as benign and two scored as having breast cancer."
The scientific team, at Power3 is proceeding to extend this study to the additional patient samples for the purpose of further discovery as well as validation of the biostatistics.
The company believes that by further evaluation of these promising biomarkers, it is likely that the basis of an early screening test for breast cancer will be established.
Such a test may have utility with high risk women and possibly the general population as of women as well.
Dr. Alan Hollingsworth, principal investigator at Mercy Women's Center, noted, "Two basic problems keep mammography from being the ultimate answer for early detection."
"First, mammograms miss cancers far more often than is generally appreciated; secondly, even when diagnosed by mammography, some cancers have already spread, such that so-called 'early diagnosis' is not early enough. Thus, a great need exists for a screening test that will not only identify cancers currently being missed by mammography, but will also offer earlier detection."
"This discovery offers the hope of such a test and may be able to show whether a patient has breast cancer years prior to mammography, indicating the need for more aggressive imaging with ultrasound or MRI."
"We are pleased with the promising results from the new blood serum biomarkers identified to date in this study," said Steven B. Rash, Chairman and CEO of Power3.
"We believe that by working closely with Dr. Hollingsworth and his team of early breast cancer detection advocates and their state of the art high resolution imaging techniques such as MRI, we have seized a unique opportunity."
"Now with these new biomarkers we are moving forward with every hope of developing the first test to detect breast cancer more effectively and earlier than current technology."
"Power3 continues to file patent applications on tests and biomarkers for early detection of breast cancer and other diseases for its growing intellectual property portfolio, thus serving to enhance shareholder value" concluded Mr. Rash.
