Microarray Technology to Diagnose Breast Cancer

Dutch researchers are exploring the potential clinical and diagnostic applications of microarray technology in order to develop a breast cancer test.

The researchers, from the Netherlands Cancer Institute (Amsterdam), co-authored a breast cancer study earlier that used microarray technology to identify a gene expression pattern that correlates to breast cancer survival rates. They found that some genes were active when a patient's tumor showed a "poor signature” and others were active when a tumor displayed a "good signature.” In a second study, 40% of the tumors were characterized as having a good profile and 60% a poor profile. While the average death rate for untreated patients is usually 30% within 10 years of diagnosis, only 4% with good profiles had died of their disease within 10 years, but 50% of patients with the poor profile had died.

The researchers speculated that following surgery with chemotherapy may be unnecessary. The researchers have formed a company called Agendia with the aim of validating their earlier findings and developing a microarray-based breast cancer test. Currently, microarrays are not approved for diagnostic use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The microarray used in the studies was developed by Agilent Technologies (Palo Alto, CA, USA).





Related Links:
Netherlands Cancer Institute
Agilent