PITTSBURGH, June 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Bradley Monk of the Creighton University School of Medicine presented a new gynecologic cancer study at the 2011 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Symposium, June 5th in Chicago, Illinois.  The study, titled, Acquired Drug Resistance in Gynecologic Cancer Detected by an In Vitro Assay, begins to answer the question of whether ChemoFx® Drug Response Marker test results taken in the primary setting can be utilized for predicting chemotherapeutic response in the recurrent setting.

To evaluate changes in chemosensitivity, ChemoFx® testing was performed on 30 patient specimens in both the primary and recurrent setting.  Test results were then analyzed to observe the development of resistance to commonly-utilized treatments for recurrent gynecologic cancers.  A significant shift towards resistance was found in the agents carboplatin and paclitaxel, but a significant shift was not observed in other agents studied.  The shift in response for carboplatin and paclitaxel may be attributed to a combination of the two agents being a NCCN® Guideline-recommended first-line therapy for primary ovarian cancer patients.

Though this shift towards resistance should be taken into consideration if a metastatic specimen is available for reanalysis, ChemoFx® results for agents not commonly used as first-line therapies were consistent in both the primary and recurrent setting.  This supports the utility of marker results obtained in the primary setting for assisting in treatment decisions when tissue is not available at the time of recurrence.

"This study suggests that ChemoFx® is able to parallel the clinical portion of ovarian cancer treatment that is associated with predicting which drugs are active in targeting optimal chemotherapy," says Dr. Bradley Monk, Professor in the division of Gynecological Oncology at Creighton University School of Medicine. "Over 1 million cases per year in the U.S. alone are treated with chemotherapy through a 'trial and error' based approach and targeting which agents are most likely to predict response is a major stride in personalizing medicine."

About Precision Therapeutics

Precision Therapeutics, a leading life-science company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is dedicated to personalized cancer care.  Precision offers a portfolio of products developed to help guide physicians and patients with difficult clinical decisions throughout the cancer care continuum.

Precision's state of the art bioinformatics combined with the analysis of the live molecular, proteomic and genomic activity of each patient's cancer offer an innovative foundation for further development and commercialization of novel predictive markers for cancer therapy. 

About ChemoFx®

Precision's first commercial test, ChemoFx®, is a proprietary drug response marker which measures an individual's malignant tumor response to a range of standard therapeutic alternatives under consideration by a physician. For more information, please visit www.precisiontherapeutics.com, or www.chemofx.com.

SOURCE Precision Therapeutics, Inc.

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