Almac Diagnostics announces major study analysing ductal carcinoma in situ tissue samples

Aug 9 2007

Almac Diagnostics has announced a major study analysing ductal carcinoma in situ tissue samples using its novel Breast Cancer DSA microarray.

DSA research tools focus on the transcriptome of an individual disease, in this case breast cancer, and contain significant additional data, relevant to the disease of interest that is not available on other generic microarrays. The study will be conducted in collaboration with Prof Adrian Harris, Cancer Research UK and Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Oxford.

"Our novel technology is helping researchers to reduce discovery timelines, accelerate the validation process and ultimately deliver clinical applications in this disease setting." said Paul Harkin, BSc, PhD, Professor of Molecular Oncology at the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen's University, Belfast and MD and President of Almac Diagnostics.

"This particular study aims to generate a gene signature to identify the subset of DCIS patients who are likely to suffer a recurrence," he added.

The study will use paraffin embedded samples and is due to commence in the coming weeks. Tissue samples will be analysed using the Breast Cancer DSA research tool. An Almac bioinformatics team will interrogate the resulting data to identify any potential signature.

"Our research will use the Breast Cancer DSA microarray to examine the transcriptome of ductal carcinoma in situ at a greater level of specificity generating additional information that will help us draw meaningful conclusions from our data. Eventually we hope to develop a gene expression signature that will inform clinical treatment strategies" said Prof Adrian Harris, Cancer Research UK Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Oxford and Principal Investigator on the study.

In some cases, the treatment for DCIS is total mastectomy as it is curative in nearly all patients1. However, this strategy may represent over-treatment for those patients in whom disease will not recur2. A gene signature identifying the subset of DCIS patients most likely to suffer a DCIS recurrence, could therefore be used to aid those remaining patients who have been identified as unlikely to suffer a recurrence to choose to undergo breast conserving surgery.

http://www.almacgroup.com/