Biomoda applauds Senator for introducing legislative bill for lung cancer screening

BiomodaJan 27 2010

Cancer diagnostics company Biomoda, Inc. (OTCBB: BMOD) (www.biomoda.com) today applauded Nebraska State Sen. Bob Krist and his co-sponsors for introducing legislation to screen up to 500 Nebraska veterans for early-stage lung cancer.

“We want to acknowledge Sen. Krist, who is himself a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, for introducing this bill, and we look forward to working with the Eppley Institute which is internationally renowned for its research on the causes, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.”

“The Nebraska Legislature has taken another step toward saving lives,” said Biomoda President and CEO John Cousins. “Lung cancer is the deadliest cancer killer, primarily because it is too difficult and too expensive to diagnose in its earliest stages when it is most treatable.”

If Legislative Bill 987 is enacted, the Nebraska Department of Veterans’ Affairs would receive $650,000 to contract with the University of Nebraska Medical Center Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases to conduct the screening program based on a non-invasive diagnostic tool developed by Biomoda and currently in clinical trials. Biomoda’s CyPath® diagnostic is for investigational use only pending approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“Veterans of the armed services are at least 25 percent more likely than the general population to be diagnosed with lung cancer. Screening programs like the one proposed by this bill in Nebraska and an earlier one enacted by the New Mexico Legislature help us spotlight one of the most serious health issues facing the men and women who serve in uniform,” Cousins said. “We want to acknowledge Sen. Krist, who is himself a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, for introducing this bill, and we look forward to working with the Eppley Institute which is internationally renowned for its research on the causes, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.”

If the Nebraska study is funded, volunteers will provide a deep-lung sputum sample to be tested for cancer cells with the CyPath® labeling solution, a porphyrin-based compound that preferentially binds to cancer cells and causes them to fluoresce red under ultraviolet light. Results will be compared to a computed tomography (CT) scan, currently the standard of care for detection of lung cancer, and sputum Pap stains read by independent cytopathologists.