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Simple Blood Test Detects Breast Cancer Early

Posted on: Monday, 10 September 2007, 06:00 CDT

What if testing for breast cancer was as easy as testing your cholesterol? What if, with a simple blood test, a woman could know very early in the progression of the disease she had breast cancer? So early it could not yet be seen with a mammogram? Although this scenario seems incredible, it will soon become a reality.

"Mammograms are currently the primary test for detecting breast cancer, but often it cannot see tumors until the patient has had the disease for up to five or six years. Mammograms also have a high rate of false positives, which result in costly and invasive follow-up tests, including biopsies, of which 75% prove benign," says Steven Rash, CEO of Power3 Medical Products, a company specializing in the development and commercialization of early-detection diagnostic tests.

The BC-SeraPro™ blood serum test for detection of breast cancer is being developed by Power3, in conjunction with Mercy Hospital Women's Center. The test analyzes biomarkers, or specific proteins, that indicate the difference between normal breast tissue, a benign breast disease, and a breast cancer. A recent study showed that the BC-SeraPro diagnostic test detected the disease accurately in 80 to 90 percent of the patients.

"A positive result in the BC-SeraPro test combined with a negative mammogram would be an indication for physicians that further imaging is necessary," says Rash, who expects an additional study with 100 patients to be completed this year. The test will become commercially available through physicians for use in women who have a high risk for breast cancer.

Proteomics, the state-of-the-art technology that Power3 applies, involves identifying protein biomarkers that differ from the body's normal protein markers. These particular markers can be used to both detect diseases early and as targets for new drug treatments. Using proteomics, distinctive proteins can be mapped to create a profile of a disease that is distinctive for that particular disease. Power3 has identified 22 biomarkers that are utilized in the detection of early breast cancer.

In addition to its usefulness in offering early diagnosis, BC-SeraPro can potentially monitor the progression of the disease to determine if a specific therapy is effective. "A blood-screening test for the early detection of breast cancer could save countless lives, while saving millions of dollars often spent on additional tests, that often times turn out to be both unnecessary and painful," says Rash.

Source: Business Wire

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