NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Biotechnology company MabCure, Inc. (OTCBB: MBCI) today announced that it has generated a panel of 10 novel monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against prostate cancer. These MAbs were selected from more than 30,000 MAbs produced by MabCure’s proprietary technology.
The 10 selected MAbs were shown to be all highly specific to prostate cancer cells without any cross reaction with other cancers or with healthy human serum tested. The Company intends to screen these MAbs in clinical studies in order to select the few that provide the highest specificity and sensitivity in diagnosing prostate cancer in the blood and urine of patients.
“Our goal is to develop a highly reliable yet simple blood or urine test that will allow physicians to diagnose prostate cancer in its early stages, when the disease is largely curable,” said MabCure CEO, Dr. Amnon Gonenne. “Our newly generated panel of anti-prostate cancer MAbs has demonstrated the desired diagnostic properties in preclinical studies, which now gives us the opportunity to evaluate their individual performance in a clinical setting and bring us closer to our goal.”
MabCure’s antibodies are directed against tumor specific antigens that are, based on early evidence, unique to prostate cancer and could lead to a specific and accurate blood or urine test for the detection of prostate cancer.
According to Dr. Gonenne, plans for a clinical study to select the best performing MAbs are underway.
According to the National Cancer Institute, more than 270,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during 2010 in the United States. All men are at risk of developing prostate cancer, and one in six men are likely be diagnosed with the disease during their lifetime. If diagnosed and treated early, the 5-year survival rate from prostate cancer approaches 100 percent, according to the National Cancer Institute.
The current gold standard for the diagnosis of prostate cancer is the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) serum marker. Two major studies published last year showed that PSA screening had either little or no effect on the death rate from prostate cancer (N.Engl J Med 2009;360:1310-1319 and 1320-1328). In another study, 25%-35% of patients having elevated PSA levels (4.1 and 9.9 nanograms per milliliter) were confirmed to have prostate cancer by biopsy, but the remaining 65%-75% of the patients having elevated PSA levels did not actually have the disease (Cancer 1997; 80:1853–1856). This makes the PSA test a highly unreliable tool for diagnosing prostate cancer. “This is not entirely surprising, since PSA is a marker of inflammation of the prostate and not a marker specific to cancer” said Dr. Gonenne.
Dr. Gonenne also commented, “We have previously reported MabCure’s advances with our MAbs for the diagnosis of ovarian cancer, where the results confirmed the occurrence of ovarian cancer with 94% accuracy, and with no false positives. We are now pleased to announce the progress we are making with our anti-prostate cancer MAbs, which enhance the repertoire of MabCure antibodies directed against cancer.”
About MabCure, Inc.
MabCure is a U.S. biotechnology company whose mission is to change the perception of cancer as being a largely incurable disease. MabCure owns proprietary technology for the creation of unique and highly specific monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), which the company plans to develop as diagnostic tools, imaging agents and therapeutic drugs to treat lethal cancers. The company’s initial focus is on the development of novel diagnostic tests for the early detection of ovarian, prostate, and colorectal cancers, each with multi-billion dollar global market potential. MabCure is also currently exploring the potential of its anti-melanoma antibodies for the development of imaging and therapeutic agents. The company is headquartered in Hasselt, Belgium. For more information about MabCure and to sign up for e-mail updates, visit www.mabcure.com.
This news release contains “forward-looking statements”. Statements in this news release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the change of business focus of the management of the Company and the inability of the Company to pursue its current objectives. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements.
CONTACT:
MabCure, Inc.
Dr. Amnon Gonenne
President and CEO
[email protected]
[email protected]
KEYWORDS: United States North America New York
INDUSTRY KEYWORDS: Health Biotechnology Oncology Pharmaceutical
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