RICHMOND, British Columbia, Oct. 27, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BioCurex Inc. (OTCBB: BOCX) CEO, Dr. Ricardo Moro, recently presented at the meeting of the International Society of Oncology and BioMarkers (ISOBM) held October 15th-19th in Firenze, Italy. The Scientific program of the ISOBM Congress included state of the art plenary lectures, podium and poster presentations, round-table discussions, meet the expert sessions, workshops, plus much more. Dr. Ricardo Moro gave three presentations during the conference pertaining to the Company's RECAF™ cancer marker.
The first presentation by Dr. Moro described the discovery process of the synthetic peptide for its proprietary cancer diagnostic test in blood.
The second presentation showed the actual results obtained on patients using the peptide based test.
The third presentation demonstrated the advantage of using PSA in combination with RECAF as a substitute for free PSA (fPSA) to eliminate up to 70% of unnecessary prostate biopsies in patients with PSA between 4 and 10 ng/ml. Patients with PSA in that range - also called "the grey zone" - can have cancer in which case they might need treatment, or, far more often, a benign tumor, which usually requires no treatment. As a result, 3/4 of patients with PSA in that range are subject to an unnecessary biopsy. The RECAF™ cancer test is far more specific than PSA and therefore, using them in combination can eliminate approximately 70% of unnecessary biopsies. This is of particular importance vis-à-vis of the recent controversy generated by the US Preventive Services Task Force recommendation against using PSA for general screening. The USPSTF stated: "There is also adequate evidence that the screening process produces at least small harms, including pain and discomfort associated with prostate biopsy and psychological effects of false-positive test results. "
Dr. Moro stated, "I am extremely pleased by the response our presentations have elicited from the conference. Two large companies ($0.5 and $2.5B a year) expressed interest in our tests with the largest one approaching us shortly after presenting our data. In addition, we discussed several collaborative opportunities including one to expand the results for prostate cancer screening and another to monitor patients previously treated for cancer. The latter is of particular interest because there is mounting evidence that survival is improved if patients in remission are monitored with cancer markers and treated when the marker starts increasing and before the metastases become clinically evident. The problem is that current cancer markers are abnormally high only in a small minority of the most common cancers such as lung and breast. On the other hand, RECAF works very well for those malignancies and therefore the interest in using it for this purpose".
For more information on the ISOBM, please visit www.isobm.org.
About BioCurex, Inc.
BioCurex, Inc. is a biotechnology company that is developing products based on patented and proprietary technology in the area of cancer diagnostics. The technology identifies a universal cancer marker known as RECAF.
RECAF is a molecule that is present on cancer cells but not detected in significant levels on healthy cells or benign tumor cells. It is the receptor for alpha-fetoprotein and is classified as an oncofetal antigen due to its presence on both fetal and malignant tissues. This characteristic makes RECAF a more accurate indicator of cancer than most current tumor markers.
BioCurex is commercializing its technology through licensing arrangements with companies that develop and market diagnostic tests for the large automated clinical laboratory setting, through development and marketing of non-automated clinical laboratory tests, through development of rapid, point-of-care test formats, and through marketing of its OncoPet RECAF test for cancer in companion animals.
BioCurex has signed licensing agreements for its cancer detection blood tests with Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) and with Alere (NYSE:ALR), formerly Inverness Medical Innovations. For further information on these agreements visit:
http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1092562/000100487808000117/sb2amnd4s1april08.txt.
For more information about the Company, please visit www.BioCurex.com.
For more information about OncoPet Diagnostics Inc., please visit: www.OncoPetDiagnostics.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
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