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

To: tuck who wrote (342)	6/15/2005 2:47:48 AM
From: tuck	Respond to of 510

["Host response protein amplification cascade" as early cancer diagnostic] >>FREMONT, Calif., June 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ciphergen Diagnostics, a division of Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CIPH - News) announced today a publication in the International Journal of Cancer (115, 783-789) of findings suggesting that Surface Enhanced Laser Desorption/Ionization Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS) based immunologic and chromatographic assays can be used to detect and quantitatively assay for post-translationally modified forms of host response proteins, which may aid in the classification of cancer. Although all cancer types generate a host response, this paper demonstrated that different cancers activate different subsets of host response proteins. By using Ciphergen's proprietary SELDI-based Pattern Track(TM) biomarker discovery to assay process with multivariate bioinformatics tools, multi-marker assays were generated that could help classify four different types of cancers, including breast, ovarian, colon, and prostate. This study was performed in collaboration with scientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Ciphergen and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine published in Cancer Research in August 2004 a 503-patient study which revealed 3 novel biomarkers that could distinguish patients with early stage ovarian cancer from control individuals (benign disease and healthy women). The three biomarkers were apolipoprotein A1, a modified form of transthyretin, and a fragment of ITIH4. The parent forms of these proteins are each host response proteins. This new publication demonstrates that the relative abundance of the modified forms of these host response proteins is tumor type specific. Multivariate analysis can be applied to these variable modifications as detected by SELDI-TOF-MS, permitting better classification of cancer. This approach may be particularly suited to improving the detection of early stage cancer because it utilizes the body's host response as an amplified signal elicited by very small tumors. Ciphergen has termed this process host response protein amplification cascade (HRPAC), since the process of synthesis, posttranslational modification and metabolism of host response proteins amplifies the signal of potentially low-abundant biologically active disease markers such as enzymes. "We believe that the host response protein amplification cascade may be a viable alternative to searching for the elusive highly-specific classical tumor marker. While classical tumor markers depend on adequate tumor bulk to be detected, HRPAC amplifies signals generated by even the smallest tumors," stated Dr. Eric Fung, Vice President of Clinical Affairs. "Because most other diseases also elicit a host response, we are studying whether this phenomenon can be used to detect other conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, infectious disease and cardiovascular disease in their earliest stages." "The HRPAC mechanism highlights the potential importance of protein fragments in biomarker discovery and development of high predictivity biomarker assays for early diagnosis of disease," commented Gail Page, President of Ciphergen's Diagnostics Division.<< snip Interesting, but not like we got any hard numbers in this PR, or in the abstract, which I've tracked down and not bothered posting, because it's so similar to the PR. Cheers, Tuck