THE WOODLANDS, Texas, July 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- MetaStat, Inc. (OTCBB: MTST) announced today that it has received notice of allowance from the U.S. Patent Office for U.S. Patent Application No. 11/659,514 and notice of allowance of European Patent Application no. 05807467.5. The patent applications are entitled: Isolation, Gene Expression, and Chemotherapeutic Resistance of Motile Cancer Cells, Inventor: John S. Condeelis, Professor and Co-Chair, Anatomy & Structural Biology, the Judith and Burton P. Resnick Chair in Translational Research, and Co-Director, Gruss Lipper Biophotonics Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. The technology covered by the allowed claims includes methods for the recovery of pure populations of highly metastatic cells, their gene expression profile, and materials and methods for the evaluation of their response to chemotherapy.
"Isolation, Gene Expression, and Chemotherapeutic Resistance of Motile Cancer Cells" describes an "artificial blood vessel" that was developed to mimic the chemical attraction exerted on highly metastatic cells by the tumor vasculature. This is the first method available to actually isolate, collect, genetically profile, and determine chemotherapeutic resistance of a pure population of metastatic cancer cells from a tumor. Previously, attempts to genetically profile these dangerous cells were thwarted because tumor samples available for analysis contained large proportions of proliferative and structural cells and only a tiny proportion of metastatic cells.
About MetaStat, Inc.
MetaStat is a life science company focused on the development and commercialization of proprietary clinical diagnostic tests that predict the probability of systemic hematogenous (blood borne) metastasis of cancer, as well as companion therapeutics to prevent this deadly spread. We believe our initial product, the MetaSite Breast™ test, will predict the probability that cancer will be disseminated by this means to other organs in the body. MetaSite Breast could be a breakthrough for breast cancer patients and their doctors because metastasis is responsible for almost 90% of fatalities from breast cancer. Further, the platform technology underlying this diagnostic approach may be applicable in up to 80% of all solid tumor cancers, including prostate, lung, colorectal, head and neck, and pancreatic. Most significantly, we believe our platform technology provides us with targets of intervention in key pathways for the development of the first therapies that may preemptively reduce or eliminate metastasis thereby dramatically reducing fatalities.
Our technology platform and corresponding products result from over 15 years of collaboration involving four scientific institutions. We believe we are unique and differentiated in the marketplace because our discoveries are based on direct microscopic visualization of living, functioning tumors in vivo. We have observed the behavior of metastatic cells as they migrate to and penetrate blood vessels, where they are subsequently carried away to establish distant site metastases.
For More Information, Contact:
Warren C. Lau President & CEO MetaStat, Inc. (281) 363-0003
SOURCE MetaStat, Inc.