Press Release: Abnova Co-Publishes Staging Biomarkers of Lymph Node Metastases for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in International Journal of Cancer

Abnova Corporation co-publishes in July issue of International Journal of Cancer: 129, 133-142 (2011) - Enhancement of a Multianalyte Serum Biomarker Panel to Identify Lymph Node Metastases in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer with Circulating Autoantibody Biomarkers. The report establishes the development of multianalyte panel of three serum biomarkers (tumor necrosis factor-alpha, tunor necrosis factor-receptor I, macrophage inflammatory protein-1alpha) in combination with three circulating autoantibody biomarkers (ubiquilin-1, hydroxysteroid-(17-beta)-dehydrogenase, and triosephosphate isomerase) which achieve a 96% successful classification rate of lymph node metastases with only a 2% false-positive rate for 107 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. This is in contrast to the 85% correct classification rate using conventional clinical methods. These findings support the notion of a simple and cost–effective blood test to evaluate NSCLC patients for metastatic progression and to complement the radiographic tests such as CT and PET to improve overall accuracy rate for noninvasive preoperative staging. The result of this study will be expanded and validated in a larger cohort study of NSCLC patients before the end of the year. Abnova aims to develop and commercialize the multianalyte biomarkers into a full-fledge in vitro diagnostics (IVD) by leveraging its strength and resources in clinical-grade reagent manufacturing, multiplex quantification, and system integration.

In NSCLC, the presence of locoregional lymph node metastases is one of the most important prognostic factors and significantly guides treatment regimens. Molecular markers are sought to accurately stage patients, especially in early disease for adjuvant chemotherapy and in occult micrometastases where conventional imaging have a dramatic loss in accuracy. Multianalyte panel of biomarkers offer statistical advantage over individual biomarkers for discerning diagnostic and prognostic features of NSCLC. Use of autoantibodies in conjunction with serum protein markers provides a greater signal amplification of tumor antigen detection resulting in a higher degree of overall sensitivity for detecting molecular events within cancer progression.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, with NSCLC accounting for about 85% of the reported cases annually. About 25-30% of the NSCLC patients presents with localized diseases and are eligible for a complete anatomic resection as a potential mean for a cure. However, as many as 40% of patients with no apparent metastatic progression will die from recurrent disease within 5 years of tumor resection, suggesting that systemic tumor cell dissemination either locoregional or distant had already occurred at the time of surgery, but went undetected by current clinical and pathological staging methods. There is an urgent unmet need to create an effective complementary and synergistic blood test capable of discriminating a patient’s true pathologic nodal status preoperatively.

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About Abnova

Abnova is a biotech company specializing in high throughput monoclonal antibody production. The infrastructure Abnova has developed is a unique combination of world-class technologies and management experience of the IT industry in Taiwan. The company has vastly expanded the scope and availability of bio-tools reagents by taking a genome-wide approach to the production of human recombinant protein and antibody. Abnova has developed a portfolio of integrated and system applications including antibody pairs, ELISA kits, assays, and FISH probes which are essential to the translational research, biomarker and drug discovery markets. Abnova also has in vitro diagnostic programs focusing on diabetes, infection, and cancer, and fully human antibody therapeutic for the treatment of sepsis.(www.abnova.com)