Clarient receives patent for Mammostrat breast cancer prognostic test

Aug 11 2010

Clarient, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLRT), a premier technology and services resource for pathologists, oncologists and the pharmaceutical industry, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the European Patent Office have allowed patents covering the technology behind Clarient Insight® Dx Mammostrat®, a test designed to aid in the classification of the risk of recurrence of breast cancer following surgery and initial treatment.

More than 210,000 women in the U.S. develop breast cancer each year. Mammostrat development was targeted to breast tumors which express estrogen receptor, the most commonly seen subtype of breast cancer. The standard of care for most of these patients is surgery to remove the tumor, followed by anti-hormonal therapy (e.g. tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors). Mammostrat testing will help pathologists, oncologists and patients decide whether additional aggressive chemotherapy should be added to a patient's treatment regimen.

Ron Andrews, Clarient Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, "Gaining allowance of these important patents represents another milestone for Clarient. Our strategy of using our proprietary cancer biomarkers and correlating them to clinical outcomes is paying off as we continue to develop novel diagnostic and prognostic tests. These patents, as well as our UK and U.S. patents for TLE3 announced earlier this summer, differ from standard gene patents as they are linked to specific clinical utility."

The test has been validated in studies involving more than 3,000 women, including a recent study of 1,540 patients from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland that was published in this month's edition of Breast Cancer Research, a prominent peer-reviewed medical journal. Those studies have all validated the Mammostrat test as an aid for risk-stratifying early stage hormone receptor-treated breast cancer patients.

"We continue to place a high level of importance on establishing a broad field of intellectual property surrounding our core proprietary technologies since they are what set us apart as a molecular diagnostics company from other lab service providers," Andrews added.  "We view these assets as critical to the growth and success of our business and to increasing shareholder value. The strength of our discovery engine continues to be unveiled, and we look forward to sharing the progress on our rich pipeline through the coming quarters."