GenoMed Announces Healthchip® to Predict Six Common Cancers Including Lung Cancer
Contact: David W. Moskowitz MD CEO, GenoMed tel. 314.983.9933 dwmoskowitz@genomed.com
ST. LOUIS—March 8, 2006--GenoMed (OTC Pink Sheets GMED.PK), a Next Generation Disease Management company whose business is public health™, announced today that it has developed a genomic test for predicting six common cancers: breast, colon, lung, ovarian, pancreatic, and prostate.
GenoMed's test, called the Healthchip®, consists of several hundred single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs, pronounced "snips"). Although several more years of tests will be required before FDA approval, the Healthchip® currently identifies patients correctly 85% of the time.
The Healthchip® allows patients to focus their preventive efforts on a single organ. A patient identified as "high risk" for lung cancer, such as Dana Reeve, could get an MRI of her lungs every year or two with the hope that any tumor would be detected at an early enough stage that it could be completely cut out surgically for a cure. Patients at high risk for a particular cancer would need to engage in lifelong surveillance, just as patients at risk for colon cancer undergo repeated colonoscopies their entire life.
Many of the genes that cause cancer will also make excellent targets for new chemotherapy drugs. Because they are more specific to the cancer process, these drugs promise to be less toxic than the currently employed general cellular poisons.
Said Dr. David Moskowitz, GenoMed's CEO and Chief Medical Officer, "Screening for the six cancers is currently possible in Caucasians only. We would like to extend this work to African American, Asian, and Hispanic patients. We would also like to extend our Healthchip® to include more than the top six solid cancers in adults, as well as cancers in children. Anyone interested is encouraged to contact me at 314.983.9933 or by e-mail, dwmoskowitz@genomed.com ."
About GenoMed
GenoMed finds disease-causing genes, and uses this knowledge to devise new treatment strategies. The Healthchip® is available on a research basis only. Because of genotyping costs, the Healthchip® costs $1,000 for research participants.
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