RICHMOND, British Columbia, May 16, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- BioCurex Inc. (Pink Sheets:BOCX) announced today that its RECAF cancer test detects initial stages of prostate cancer with 75% sensitivity and 100% specificity when compared to healthy individuals; and 68% sensitivity with 97% specificity when compared to men with benign prostate conditions.
Sensitivity is the ability of a test to detect existing cancers (if all patients who have a cancer test positive = 100% sensitivity.) Specificity represents how well the test avoids false positives (no false positives = 100% specificity.)
Cancer patients vs. normal individuals:
STAGE(a) SENSITIVITY SPECIFICITY CANCER SAMPLES Early (I+II or A+B) 75% 100% 84 III (C) 85% 100% 20 IV (D) 86% 100% 28 Cancer patients vs. patients with benign prostate conditions: STAGE(a) SENSITIVITY SPECIFICITY CANCER SAMPLES Early (I+II or A+B) 68% 97% 84 III (C) 80% 97% 20 IV (D) 68% 97% 28
Dr. Moro, CEO, stated: "These results complement those previously announced for breast cancer and they strongly suggest that the RECAF blood test could detect early stages of all the major cancer types. We have reported on the ability of RECAF to detect cancers of many tissue types using samples which grouped early and late stage cancers. The present study further differentiates the stage of the cancer in comparison to normal and benign prostatic growths.
"So far, in all of our studies on different cancers, we have compared the average amount of RECAF in the blood of different groups of individuals (e.g. normal donors, patients with benign tumors, or cancer patients), but the normal amount of RECAF -- or any other protein in blood -- varies from one individual to another. Therefore, a range of values is used to determine if a person has a cancer. This means that the RECAF value we use to determine if a person has cancer must necessarily be high in order to avoid informing a healthy individual that he has cancer, when he may just be at the upper end of the RECAF normal spectrum. But, if we did sequential blood tests on each person and assuming their RECAF value is rather constant over time, then a small change in the level of circulating RECAF would detect cancer at the earliest stages. We do not know yet if the normal RECAF concentration is constant enough to make this personalization possible. However, if it was consistent, this suggested approach might prove to be a winning strategy in the fight against cancer. We could then have an exquisitely sensitive tool to detect many types of cancer.
"Routine complete checkups are currently performed once per year. They are expensive and inconvenient. On the other hand, a RECAF blood test done once every three to six months would exonerate the immense majority of those tested as normal. Yet, it would still be able to pick up cancers shortly after they arise and not a year later. This could save the medical system a great deal of money and would be easily justified given the high mortality rate of cancer. The significance of early detection to the individual patient is vital."
A test -- such as RECAF -- that can detect different types of cancer at early stages (as announced recently for breast cancer) could be used as a low cost routine exam to detect cancer in general. This would then allow for treatment of early stage cancers which are the most curable.
The Company's success in obtaining early diagnosis with excellent discrimination between cancer and benign disease using RECAF is clearly an advantage in comparison to using PSA - the standard screening method for prostate cancer. Of men with elevated PSA, only 30% are found to have prostate cancer after biopsy(c) and the biopsy only samples a portion of the prostate and does not indicate whether there might be cancer in adjacent cells that were not biopsied.
The table below shows the curability of different stages of prostate cancer:
Prostate Cancer Stage Curability(b) Stage I (or A) 87% Stage II (or B) 81% Stage III (or C) 64% Stage IV (or D) 30%
About BioCurex:
BioCurex, Inc. is a biotechnology company that is developing products based on patented/proprietary technology in the areas of cancer diagnosis, imaging and therapy. The technology identifies a cancer marker known as RECAF(tm), which is found on malignant cells from a variety of cancer types but is absent in most normal or benign cells.
BioCurex has signed a licensing agreement with Abbott Laboratories for BioCurex's RECAF(tm) Cancer technology as outlined in a joint press release dated March 29, 2005. The release noted that the cancer marker RECAF(tm) has emerged as a potential biomarker that may be useful in the development of new cancer diagnostics tests. Preliminary studies from the investigators at BioCurex have reported a high level of clinical sensitivity and specificity for RECAF in many of the most common cancers, including prostate, breast, colorectal, lung and others.
To read more about the Company, please visit the News section in our web site (www.biocurex.com).
Note:
The Company has not authorized the release of this information in any form that contravenes the Communication Act and will not be responsible for unsolicited massive distribution of this material by e-mail or facsimile by unauthorized parties. Statements in this press release, which are not historical facts, are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning given to that term in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbors created thereby. Since these statements involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, the Company's actual results could differ materially from expected results.
(a) Prostate cancer staging:
Stage I (sometimes referred to as stage A): Tumor cells are found in less than 5 percent of prostate tissue removed, and the cells are not very aggressive in nature.
Stage II: (sometimes referred to as stage B):
-- Tumor cells are found in less than 5 percent of prostate tissue
removed, and the cells are more aggressive in nature, or
-- the tumor is larger in size, but is confined to the prostate
gland.
Stage III: (sometimes referred to as stage C): The tumor has grown through the capsule which surrounds the prostate gland, and may involve seminal vesicles (tubes that carry sperm).
Stage IV: (sometimes referred to as stage D1 or D2): The tumor has spread to other structures beyond the seminal vesicles to any other organ or structure.
Source: University of Virginia (http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/uvahealth/adult_prostate/stages.cfm)
Also see: http://www.meb.uni-bonn.de/cancer.gov/CDR0000062910.html#REF_104
(b) CA Cancer J. Clin. 1993;43;83-91. C. Mettlin, G. W. Jones and G. P. Murphy. Cancer patient care evaluation studies of the American College of Surgeons Commission on Trends in prostate cancer care in the United States, 1974-1990.
(c) Urology. 2000 Sep 1;56(3):418-22. Finne P, Finne R, Auvinen A, Juusela H, Aro J, Maattanen L, Hakama M, Rannikko S, Tammela TL, Stenman U. Predicting the outcome of prostate biopsy in screen-positive men by a multilayer perceptron network.