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Another piece relating to further research..Feb 10

Clinical Science To Release Data On HealthLinx' New Ovarian Cancer Biomarker
Published: 10-Feb-2010

HealthLinx has been notified by the journal, Clinical Science, that a manuscript submitted for review by HealthLinx scientists and collaborators at the University of Liverpool, has been accepted for publication. The manuscript describes the identification of HTX005 (AGR2) as a new biomarker released into the bloodstream of ovarian cancer patients.
The performance of the novel biomarker, AGR2, will be further tested in an up-coming multi-centre, multi-national biomarker study planned by HealthLinx. Based on preliminary data, it is expected that this biomarker will increase the performance of OvPlex to greater than 97%.

Clinical Science will publish the paper entitled, 'Increased plasma concentrations of anterior gradient 2 protein are positively associated with ovarian cancer' in the forthcoming months. However, a pre-print version is currently available on the Clinical Science web site.

Over the past 12 months, the company has been informing the market of pending developments relating to its biomarker, HTX005. HealthLinx can now divulge the identity of this biomarker as AGR2. This is the first demonstration that the AGR2 protein is released into the bloodstream of ovarian cancer patients and the published study illustrates its potential role in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer.

Nick Gatsios, managing director of HealthLinx, said: HealthLinx has a patent pending for what we view as a unique antibody that allows us to detect the protein in human blood. We have been working with this biomarker for almost two years and have been holding our cards very close to our chest until we were confident about its importance in our programs.

When we model AGR2 with some of our existing biomarkers in the OvPlex panel we achieve greater than 97% diagnostic efficiency. We are confident that the second larger biomarker study commencing in the very near future will further establish the potential of this biomarker and its relevance to producing the next generation multi-marker panel with significantly improved performance.


cheers!