Bioview will develop in automated cancer screening system to carry out Abbott Molecular's lung cancer diagnostic test.
Cancer screening company BioView Ltd. (TASE:BIOV) has signed a cooperation agreement with Abbott Molecular Inc., under which Bioview will develop in automated cancer screening system to carry out Abbott's lung cancer diagnostic test.
Abbott Molecular's current test to distinguish between different kinds of lung cancer, in order to provide the proper treatment, is carried out manually by a laboratory technician. Automating the test will save time and effort, and improve accuracy.
BioView has already applied its technology to other Abbott Molecular tests for breast and bladder cancer. Each time that these tests were approved, they boosted BioView's sales by millions of dollars.
Under the new collaboration, the two companies will jointly conduct clinical trials of the automated lung cancer test in order to certify it for marketing in the US. Abbott's manual test is already certified by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The companies estimate that this process will take several months.
Persons with rheumatoid arthritis have daily struggles with severe pain and movement. Another serious downfall of the disorder is that these patients are more susceptible to develop cancer.
The association between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and cancer is not completely clear. Some studies show an increased risk of cancer in people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) while others show a decreased risk. But the picture becomes clearer when researchers look at specific cancer types. Lymphoma. The strongest evidence of a link appears to be between lymphoma -- the most common type of blood cancer -- and severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Researchers from Sweden examined data from nearly 75,000 RA patients, 378 of whom had lymphoma. The researchers assessed risk for three different levels of disease activity (low, moderate, and severe) and found that people with moderate disease activity were eight times more likely to have lymphoma than those who had low disease activity, while those with severe disease activity were 70 times more likely. More support for a connection comes from a review of 21 published studies, including the Swedish study and 13 others that tried to determine whether there was a link between lymphoma and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The findings, reported recently in Arthritis Research & Therapy,showed that overall, people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were twice as likely as the general population to develop lymphoma, particularly Hodgkin's lymphoma (one of the most curable types of cancer when detected early). Lung cancer. The same review also reported that lung cancer was observed more often in people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Based on data from 12 studies, people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were 63% more likely to develop lung cancer than the general population. Cancer at other sites. In addition, the authors of the review reported a potentially reduced risk of colorectal cancer among people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) -- possibly due to their increased use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and COX-2 inhibitors. The researchers also reported a slightly reduced risk of breast cancer. What's Behind the Link? An important question that remains unanswered is whether people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are more prone to develop certain cancers than others or if the medications they take could be responsible for the increased risk. In the Swedish study, more than 70% of people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) had taken traditional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, or DMARDs, such as methotrexate (Rheumatrex, Trexall). However, the only DMARD linked to an increased risk of lymphoma was azathioprine (Imuran) -- a treatment that is rarely used today. There was also no link between NSAIDs like aspirin and ibuprofen (Advil and others). One encouraging finding was that people who frequently used corticosteroids for inflamed joints had a lower risk of lymphoma, a result that suggests anti-inflammatory drugs could possibly protect against lymphoma.
Kimme L. Hyrich,M.D.,Arthritis Research UK Epidemiology Unit at University of Manchester discusses the risk of rheumatoid arthritis patients.
All RA patients should be regularly tested for cancer. All health care professionals should be aware of this risk and write orders so they can be screened. If you know anyone with RA please ask and encourage them to be tested. Early detection can save a life.
The new direction of cancer treatment is becoming personalized to the characteristics of individual patients. Instead of treating specific cancers the same way for all patients researchers are focusing on the characteristic's of each patient and their tumors.
These new ways of treatment was presented at the Third European Lung Cancer Conference in Geneva.
A major goal of lung cancer treatment is to tailor the treatment to the
individual," says Dr Fiona Blackhall from The Christie NHS Foundation
Trust in Manchester, UK. "The studies that will be presented at ELCC
2012 are important practical steps to achieving this in the clinic.
Methods ranging from convenient blood-based molecular tests, detailed
genetic analysis of tumors and functional imaging techniques have been
applied in patient populations receiving a range of treatments. These
findings provide impetus to continue developing a personalized medicine
approach to lung cancer with the overall aim of selecting the most
effective treatment for the individual."
Proteins provide clues to outcomes
An international group of researchers report promising results with a
test that may identify patients likely to benefit from first-line
therapy with a particular drug combination.
Dr Oliver Gautschi from the Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research
(SAKK), and collaborators from The Netherlands and the US company
developing the test, conducted a retrospective analysis of two phase-II
trials with a serum proteomic classifier called VeriStrat-. Their aim
was to evaluate the prognostic value of the test in patients with
advanced non-small cell lung cancer receiving first-line treatment with bevacizumab and erlotinib.
VeriStrat- uses mass spectrometry to measure proteins in
pre-treatment blood and assigns a result that correlates with outcome
from treatment with a class of drugs known as EGFR inhibitors, which
includes erlotinib and gefitinib. The test was initially developed and
validated in patients who had already been treated with chemotherapy, and who then received an EGFR inhibitor in second line, Dr Gautschi explains.
"We conducted this project to see if the test is also prognostic in
untreated patients who received an EGFR inhibitor in the first line.
Until now, this has not been clear."
The researchers used VeriStrat- to analyze blood samples from 117
patients previously enrolled in two phase II trials and compared the
results to the patients' progression-free survival and overall survival.
The analysis showed that those classified by the test as likely to have
better outcomes on EGFR inhibitor therapy did indeed live longer.
"The difference in overall survival between patients classified by
the test as likely to have better or worse outcomes when receiving EGFR
inhibitors was clinically relevant," Dr Gautschi said. However he noted
that definitive conclusions about the use of this test in previously
untreated patients requires further studies.
"There is an unmet need for reliable blood-based markers in patients with lung cancer, because lung tumors are harder to biopsy than breast tumours for example. The current study indicates that modern technologies, such as proteomics, are promising tools, which need further validation in large trials," he said. In this context, the European Thoracic Oncology Platform (ETOP) is currently launching a prospective phase-III trial to futher validate this test in patients with lung cancer.
Gene Based Lung Cancer Treatment
For more information:
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20120419/New-studies-on-personalized-lung-cancer-treatment-presented-at-3rd-ELCC.aspx
Diagnostic Biosystems (DBS), a specialty Immunohistochemistry company,
announces its debut as an automated IHC company, introducing the Mosaic
360™ System with a product offering of novel Multiplex
Immunohistochemistry kits and a complementary line of optimized IHC
reagents.
Built on a history of developing distinctive chromogens to differentiate
morphology on a single slide, Diagnostic BioSystems introduces a
portfolio of five Mosaic Multiplex™ Lung Cancer Kits for use in tissue
analysis of suspected Lung Cancer patients. Pathologists are challenged
with scarce tissue availability in patients with cancer. DBS is
addressing the tissue challenge with the Mosaic Multiplex ™ kits
enabling testing of multiple analytes on one slide with a complete kit
optimized for the DBS Mosaic 360™ System automated platform for lab to
lab standardized results.
The Mosaic System™ also includes a new line of “plug and play” reagents
optimized on the Mosaic 360™ platform to provide convenience for the
Histology Technologist in the Pathology laboratory.
“Diagnostic Biosystems is focused on developing clinically relevant
tools for pathologists. We believe it is important to provide the most
information with the limited tissue available in cancer patients today.
Our standardized Mosaic Multiplex™ lung cancer kits” are focused on
solving this problem,” said Dr. Bipin Gupta, PhD, President & CEO of
Diagnostic BioSystems.
During the USCAP, Diagnostic BioSystems will sponsor a Pathologist
Roundtable event on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 in Vancouver BC to discuss
advances in the use of Multiplex Kits in the analysis of suspected
cancers. Two industry experts, Dr. Omar Hameed from Vanderbilt and Dr.
Arundhati Rao from Scott & White Healthcare System, will join Marc Key
Ph.D., DBS Scientific Advisor, in leading these discussions.
