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Biotech / Medical : Ciphergen Biosystems(CIPH): -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tuck who wrote (77)	10/22/2002 9:23:08 AM
From: tuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 510

Competition I had not seen before in diagnostics: >>EVERGREEN, Colo., Oct. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- CeMines Inc., a privately held company, today announced that in multi-site clinical trials of its 'molecular fingerprinting'-based blood test, cancer was correctly identified in each of the 177 patients (100 percent sensitivity) who were known to have one of four different tumor types -- lung, breast, gastrointestinal (GI) or prostate. CeMines' blood test also correctly ruled out cancer in each of the 72 control patients (100 percent specificity). CeMines' data were recently presented by Dr. Toomas Neuman, CeMines' chief scientific officer, at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, one of Europe's largest medical universities and the presenter of the annual Nobel Prize for Medicine. Based on these data, CeMines and a research team at Karolinska Institutet have initiated a sponsored research program to validate "molecular fingerprinting" on clinical study of 4,500 lung, breast and gastrointestinal cancer patients. "CeMines' noninvasive 'molecular fingerprinting' technology is extremely promising, and the idea behind this approach is brilliant," said Dr. Madis Metsis, principal investigator of the 4,500-patient study now under way at Karolinska. "The next step will be systematic and well-defined analyses of tumors in order to reach the ultimate goal of 'molecular fingerprinting' -- deciphering the molecular structure of individual tumors that will help to design specific diagnostic methods and drugs to treat cancer." As part of the body's immune response to cancer, antibodies are produced to fight cancer cells. These antibodies, which reflect the molecular signature or 'fingerprint' of a tumor, are generated in cancer's earliest stages, even when the tumor is a collection of single cells. CeMines' 'molecular fingerprinting' technology detects these antibodies in the blood to precisely diagnose a variety of tumors. The detection of these antibodies could result in the discovery of cancer months, perhaps years, before today's conventional methods. The breakdown of the data are as follows: Cancer Type Cancer Patients Control Patients Lung 135/135 identified 41/41 identified as cancer-free Breast 10/10 identified 10/10 identified as cancer-free Gastrointestinal 11/11 identified 11/11 identified as cancer-free Prostate 21/21 identified 10/10 identified as cancer-free "Based on the clinical data to date, it appears that our diagnostic tests can detect the presence of cancerous cells earlier and more accurately than current existing methods," said Bailey E. Dotson, chief executive officer of CeMines. "Our technology can discriminate between normal cells and cancerous cells at their earliest formation." "Because our technology can accurately identify molecular subtypes of tumors, we believe it may also predict which available therapies will work best on a given patient and which will have harmful side-effects," added Richard Cavalli, president of CeMines. "In the future, it is possible that our technology could lend itself perfectly to the intelligent design of a whole new class of drugs for effective cancer treatment. "CeMines is currently seeking private financing that will be used to fund large-scale clinical trials," said Cavalli. "We have initiated a collaboration with researchers at The Karolinska Institutet to study blood samples from up to 4,500 patients with lung, breast and gastrointestinal cancer." CeMines is building a large database of cancer patients that includes the patients' specific molecular profile, the treatment administered and the results. By comparing the molecular profile to CeMines' database, doctors will know how that specific cancer has responded to a given treatment in the past, and will have better information to make treatment recommendations. Hundreds of experimental drugs for the treatment of cancer have failed FDA approval because, until now, it has not been possible to predict which patient will respond positively. CeMines intends to leverage its ability to determine the molecular specificity of each individual tumor into Intelligent Drug Design of more precise and accurate cancer drugs. Based in Evergreen, Colorado, CeMines has developed and is commercializing its breakthrough molecular fingerprinting blood test for the early-detection and optimum treatment for a variety of cancers. Utilizing its proprietary and novel platform, CeMines believes that its minimally invasive diagnostic tests will provide accurate, early detection of most widespread cancers -- including lung, breast, prostate and gastrointestinal - and should also predict the most effective treatment. The company's web site is www.cemines.com.<< Cheers, Tuck