THE WOODLANDS, Texas, April 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- MetaStat, Inc. (OTCBB: MTST) announced today that it has executed two additional license agreements to patent applications and technology from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. The first license agreement covers U.S. Patent Application No. 12/998,237 entitled "An In Vivo Quantitative Screening Test for Anti-Metastasis Treatment Efficacy"; inventors: Jeffrey Edward Segall, John S. Condeelis, Dmitriy Kedrin, Jacco van Rheenan and Bojanna Gligorijevic. The second license includes two areas of intellectual property, U.S. Patent Application No. 11/659,514 entitled "Isolation, Gene Expression, and Chemotherapeutic Resistance of Motile Cancer Cells"; inventor John S. Condeelis (and its accompanying Canadian and European Patent Applications) and U.S. Provisional Patent Application (pending) entitled "Human Invasion Signature for Prognosis of Metastatic Risk"; inventors: John S. Condeelis and Antonia Patsialou.
We believe the technologies covered in these patent applications expand MetaStat's intellectual property in the field of highly metastatic cells. Metastatic cells are the cancer cells that have developed the ability to transform themselves both physically and behaviorally from proiferative to metastatic. They migrate within the tumor, hone in on the tumor vasculature, form complexes on the surface of the blood vessels, and gain entry to the blood stream where they are carried to distant organs and tissues of the body to form metastases. These distant site metastases are the cause of the vast majority of fatalities from solid tumor cancers including approximately 90% of fatalities from breast cancer.
We believe the technology underlying "An In Vivo Quantitative Screening Test for Anti-Metastasis Treatment Efficacy" is expected to provide drug developers at MetaStat and potential corporate partners with drug development tools to develop the next generation of anti-metastatic drugs. There are currently no FDA approved drugs to target and kill these metastatic cells.
"Isolation, Gene Expression, and Chemotherapeutic Resistance of Motile Cancer Cells" describes an "artificial blood vessel" that was developed to mimic the chemical attraction exerted on highly metastatic cells by the tumor vasculature. We believe this is the first method available to actually isolate, collect, genetically profile, and determine chemotherapeutic resistance of a pure population of metastatic cancer cells from a tumor. Previously, attempts to genetically profile these dangerous cells were difficult because tumor samples available for analysis contained large proportions of proliferative and structural cells and only a tiny proportion of metastatic cells.
"Human Invasion Signature for Prognosis of Metastatic Risk," another result of our proprietary ability to isolate metastatic cells, describes the actual causative gene signature of metastatic cells. This approach contrasts with currently available technology that purports to evaluate risk of cancer recurrence by relying upon correlative mathematical algorithms developed through the statistical analysis of whole tumor tissue samples.
About MetaStat, Inc.
MetaStat is a life science company focused on the development and commercialization of proprietary clinical diagnostic tests that predict the probability of systemic hematogenous (blood borne) metastasis of cancer, as well as companion therapeutics to prevent this deadly spread. We believe our initial product, the MetaSite Breast™ test, will predict the probability that cancer will be disseminated by this means to other organs in the body. MetaSite Breast is expected to be an important guide to treatment strategies for breast cancer patients and their doctors because metastasis is responsible for almost 90% of fatalities from breast cancer. Further, the platform technology underlying this diagnostic approach may be applicable in up to 80% of all solid tumor cancers, including prostate, lung, colorectal, head and neck, and pancreatic. Most significantly, we believe our platform technology provides us with targets of intervention in key pathways for the development of the first therapies that may preemptively reduce or eliminate metastasis thereby dramatically reducing fatalities.
Our technology platform and corresponding products result from over 15 years of collaboration involving four highly respected scientific institutions. We are unique and differentiated in the marketplace because our discoveries are based on direct microscopic visualization of living, functioning cancer tumors. We have observed the behaviors and mechanisms used by metastatic cells as they migrate to and penetrate blood vessels, where they are subsequently carried away to establish distant site metastases.
For More Information, Contact:
Warren C. Lau
President & CEO
MetaStat, Inc.
(281) 363-0003
SOURCE MetaStat, Inc.
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