Johns Hopkins Researchers Use ProteinChip(R) Technology to Discover Novel Biomarkers for the Potential Diagnosis of Pancreatic Cancer
Friday February 6, 8:00 am ET
Data Presented in the Journal of Clinical Cancer Research
FREMONT, Calif., Feb. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ciphergen Diagnostics, a division of Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CIPH - News) announced today that a research team led by Drs. Michael Goggins and Daniel W. Chan at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine used the company's ProteinChip® technology to discover panels of novel serum biomarkers that are able to differentiate patients with pancreatic cancer from patients with other pancreatic diseases and from healthy individuals. The study was published today in the Journal of Clinical Cancer Research.
"Ciphergen's clinical diagnostics program, based on our core SELDI ProteinChip technology, is enabling researchers to rapidly advance the prospect of highly sensitive, specific and non-invasive tests for numerous cancers as well as several other diseases," said Gail Page, President of Ciphergen Diagnostics. "We believe that novel biomarkers can enable early detection of pancreatic cancer and this program is one we will be pursuing, in partnership with our collaborators at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, as part of our emerging diagnostic pipeline."
Using SELDI ProteinChip technology and bioinformatics tools, Dr. Goggins and colleagues analyzed serum samples from 60 patients with pancreatic cancer, 60 age- and sex-matched patients with non-malignant pancreatic diseases and 60 age- and sex-matched healthy patients in the controls group. Analysis of the data revealed two protein biomarkers that could discriminate pancreatic cancer patients from healthy controls with specificity (true negatives) of 97% and sensitivity (true positives) of 78%. The addition of CA19-9 to the two-marker panel further improved its overall performance. Because the study analyzed patients with surgically resectable cancer, it is possible that this marker panel will be diagnostically useful even for patients with small cancers. Ciphergen's Diagnostics Division and the Johns Hopkins research team are currently recruiting additional patients in order to perform follow-on validation studies.
Pancreatic cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death and has the poorest survival rate for any solid cancer. The American Cancer Society projects that, in 2004, about 31,860 people in the U.S. will be found to have pancreatic cancer and about 31,270 will die of the disease. The disease is often very advanced by the time symptoms occur and diagnosis is established, as a result of which the five year survival rate of pancreatic cancer patients is less than 5%. If detected early and treated by surgery, 5-year survival rates improve to approximately 15-40%. Thus, there is an unmet clinical need for accurate non-invasive tests for the early detection of pancreatic cancer. A currently available serum test, CA19-9, can be used for monitoring patients already diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but there is no serum test today for the initial diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
Ciphergen and The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have been collaborating since 2000 focusing on the discovery of novel protein biomarkers of various cancers. As part of the collaboration, Ciphergen has provided financial support and technical assistance through its Biomarker Discovery Center® facilities. Ciphergen has an exclusive option to the therapeutic and diagnostic rights to discoveries made under the collaboration, with royalties back to Johns Hopkins. Patents have been filed on the novel biomarkers described in the Journal of Clinical Cancer Research paper... |
