Get the latest biotech news where you want it. Sign up for the free GenePool newsletter today!A Spanish Company Develops a Test That Detects Whether a Breast Cancer Disease Will Develop MetastasisDerio, 24 June 2013. The Spanish company Oncomatrix has developed a test to initially diagnose whether a breast cancer disease contains infiltrating cells, that is, if it has the capacity to develop metastasis. This information, which is essential for doctors, is obtained more safely than using traditional methods and allows doctors to treat cancer from the very start, knowing that it is a high-risk tumour. Therefore, all patients will be able to receive the most suitable personalised treatment for their specific disease.The test is already being used in leading hospitals in the USA, such as John Hopkins and Cedars Mount Sinai in Los Angeles.

Currently, 25% of invasive tumours are not classified as such during the initial diagnosis, which means a delay in the application of the specific treatment that is required in order to avoid its progression to metastasis. Current techniques cannot detect it with the same degree of reliability provided by the new test, which has extremely high sensitivity and specificity levels of 93.5% and 94.2% respectively.

Breast cancer is the most common type of tumour found in women and represents 23% of all tumours in the world and causes over 450,000 deaths a year.

The test, called BreastScan, was developed by Oncomatrix in partnership with the Central Hospital of Asturias, the University of Oviedo and Hospital Marqués de Valdecilla in Santander, based on the identification of genes and proteins involved in the invasiveness of tumours. This test also makes it possible to predict if a benign breast cancer disease, such as a papilloma, will become a malignant tumour, meaning that the most effective treatment can be planned for each woman. To date there has never been an indicator that could predict the advance of a papilloma tumour to a cancerous disease.

About Oncomatrix

The work of Oncomatrix is focused on the development of personalised biological medications and diagnostic kits to treat invasive states of breast cancer and cancer of the pancreas, both of which have an extremely high death rate. The company, located in the Technological Park of Biscay, has discovered new mechanisms based on healthy cell proteins that surround the tumour and facilitate the invasiveness of the cancer and therefore metastasis.

Oncomatrix specialises in the development of new treatments to block these proteins, in partnership with leading European universities and research centres, such as the University of Stuttgart, the University Hospital Marqués de Valdecilla, and the Central Hospital of Asturias and also in the USA, with the National Jewish Health Centre and Case Western Reserve University.

www.oncomatrix.es

V K Comunicación

For more information, please contact:

Patricia Loredo Sierra

Tel.: 944 01 53 06. Mobile: 629 74 90 47

patricia@vkcomunicacion.com