Power3 Medical develops blood test for breast cancer

By Angela McDaniels

Seattle, Feb. 9 - Power3 Medical Products Inc. said it has developed a blood test for the early detection of breast cancer that uses blood serum protein biomarkers.

"Our preliminary diagnostic test results have consistently demonstrated an exceptional capability for early identification and classification of individuals into a cancer-free state versus benign and normal," chief scientific officer Ira L. Goldknopf said in a company news release.

The company began a 400-patient multi-site, clinical validation study in August 2004, in which 162 patients have been enrolled.

"The proof of concept is now complete, and 12 blood serum-based protein biomarkers have been initially identified," Goldknopf added in the release.

The blood test is being developed as a means of detecting breast cancer without a mammogram, which is not entirely reliable, the company said.

"In multiple studies of high-risk screening where mammography is compared head-to-head with breast MRI, mammography is identifying less than half of the cancers detected by MRI," lead investigator Alan Hollingsworth of Mercy Woman's Center in Oklahoma City said in the release.

"This is one of the primary reasons why it has been so difficult to confirm a mortality reduction with mammographic screening, especially in pre-menopausal women with dense breast tissue."

A screening blood test would function independently of breast density. Physicians could then confirm the diagnosis with an ultrasound or MRI test.

"The health care industry cannot come close to accommodating the entire adult female population with these expensive screening modalities and desperately needs a blood test to efficiently utilize the technology that we have in place, closing the gap left by mammography alone," Hollingsworth said in the release.

Study findings will be presented at the OncoProteomics World Congress in San Francisco in April.

Power3 Medical Products is a Houston-based proteomics company that develops protein biomarkers, drug targets and diagnostic tests.

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