Ann: GENERAL: PEB: Pacific Edge issued patent in Europe for gastric cancer

• Release Date: 24/02/15 15:43
• Summary: GENERAL: PEB: Pacific Edge issued patent in Europe for gastric cancer
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					PEB
24/02/2015 15:43
GENERAL
PRICE SENSITIVE
REL: 1543 HRS Pacific Edge Limited

GENERAL: PEB: Pacific Edge issued patent in Europe for gastric cancer

24 February 2015

Pacific Edge issued patent in Europe for gastric cancer

Pacific Edge Limited (the Company) has extended the patent footprint for its
stomach cancer technology after it was granted patent protection in Europe
for 'Detection of Gastric Cancer'. Gastric or stomach cancer is one of the
most common cancers in the world and Pacific Edge also has patents for its
gastric cancer technology in New Zealand, Australia and China.

Pacific Edge Chief Executive Officer David Darling says: "There is an
estimated 934,000 new cases of gastric cancer diagnosed globally each year.
While the greatest incidences occur in China, Japan and Korea, it is still a
major health issue in Europe."

"Investment in intellectual property is an important investment for Pacific
Edge as it underpins the commercial capability of the company's products."

While Pacific Edge would explore commercialisation opportunities for its
gastric technology and continue to develop this towards a commercial product,
its key focus remains on its Cxbladder products already in the market and the
successful launch and further commercial development of the suite of
Cxbladder products for detecting and managing bladder cancer.

Pacific Edge was founded to use the latest developments in molecular biology
to provide actionable diagnostic and prognostic tests that can contribute to
a clinically meaningful difference in detection and management of cancer. "It
is the driving force of our research and product development programs. We are
now a fully-fledged cancer diagnostics company offering commercial products
in New Zealand, Australia and the USA," David Darling says.

For further information please contact
David Darling
Chief Executive Officer
Pacific Edge Limited
P: +64 (3) 479 5800

ABOUT PACIFIC EDGE
Pacific Edge Limited (NZX: PEB) is a New Zealand based cancer diagnostic
company specialising in the discovery and commercialisation of diagnostic and
prognostic technology for the early detection and monitoring of cancer.
Products in development and in clinical trials are accurate and simple to use
genomic and proteomic tools for the earlier detection, improved
characterisation and better management of gastric, bladder, colorectal
cancers and melanoma. The Company has recently completed and released its
first product for the detection of bladder cancer, Cxbladder, and is actively
marketing the product to urologists in New Zealand, Australia and soon to be
Spain and the USA.

www.pacificedge.co.nz
ABOUT PACIFIC EDGE DIAGNOSTICS
Pacific Edge takes its exciting cancer detection tests to market through its
wholly owned subsidiaries, Pacific Edge Diagnostics NZ Limited and Pacific
Edge Diagnostics USA Limited, and selected commercial partners in Australia
and Spain, Healthscope Pathology and Oryzon respectively.

www.pacificedgedx.com

ABOUT Cxbladder
Cxbladder is a non-invasive, accurate test that enables the early detection
of bladder cancer from a small volume of urine. It provides general
practitioners and urologists with a quick, cost effective and accurate
measure of the presence of the cancer and provides urologists with the
opportunity to reduce their reliance on the need for invasive tests such as
cystoscopy. The recently published, Journal of Urology in September 2012,
multi-centre international clinical study recruited 485 patients from
Australia and New Zealand. Results show that Cxbladder out-performed all
other benchmark technologies in the clinical trial and detected nearly all of
the tumours of concern to a urologist; At 85% specificity the test sees 100%
of T1, T2, T3, Tis and greater than 95% of high grade tumours.

www.cxbladder.com
ABOUT BLADDER CANCER
Globally, bladder cancer has the 9th highest incidence and the 4th highest
incidence for men. One of the early symptoms of bladder cancer is the
presence of blood in the urine, haematuria. People with haematuria often
present to their general practitioner before being referred on to a
urologist.

There are a number of 'at risk' occupations that have shown a much higher
incidence of bladder cancer. Fire fighters and fire control officers have
shown in a US study to have a twice the incidence of bladder cancer over non
fire fighters. Smoking is a significant contributing factor (over 50% in
males and 33% in females, and approximately one of every two new incidences
of bladder cancer is linked to smoking).  Exposure to certain industrial
chemicals or carcinogens increases risks for some occupations e.g.
hairdressers, painters, printers, fire fighters and metal workers and
chemical engineers. Incidence increases with age so the older you are, the
greater the potential for bladder cancer.

Bladder cancer has a very high recurrence rate of approximately 50%-70% with
up to 30% of these recurring as later stage tumours. This is a higher
recurrence than for skin cancer!  However, bladder cancers are highly
treatable, especially if detected in the early stages. If diagnosed early
there is a much higher probability of survival for early stage tumours
relative to later stage tumours. This makes timely and regular surveillance
and monitoring of this cancer a key element of the clinical process and of
the individual's annual healthcare plan.
End CA:00261058 For:PEB    Type:GENERAL    Time:2015-02-24 15:43:03