Ticker Symbol: CUR
QUEBEC CITY, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - DiagnoCure Inc. , a life sciences company commercializing high-value cancer diagnostic tests and delivering lab services, and its wholly-owned subsidiary, DiagnoCure Oncology Laboratories based in West Chester, PA, near Philadelphia, will exhibit at the American Society of Clinical Oncology The Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (ASCO GI) beginning January 15th in San Francisco, California. The Company is also sponsoring an Independent Satellite Symposium to be conducted adjunct to ASCO GI on January 14th, during which molecular markers for colorectal cancer will be discussed.
DiagnoCure will take this opportunity to meet surgeons, oncologists, radiologists and other clinical specialists who focus on treating patients with colorectal and other cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, and increase their awareness about its Previstage(TM) GCC Colorectal Cancer Staging Test, launched last August in the United States.
In particular, DiagnoCure has provided an unrestricted educational grant for the Independent Satellite Symposium, “Molecular Markers and Prognosis of Patients with Colorectal Cancer”. Three members of DiagnoCure’s Strategic Advisory Board, Dr. Edith P. Mitchel (Thomas Jefferson University), Dr. Stanley Hamilton (University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center) and Dr. Daniel Sargent (Mayo Clinic), will be speaking about patients with colorectal cancer, including a review of the value of colorectal cancer staging. Medical Education Resources, Inc., an ACCME accredited provider, designates this presentation as a creditable educational activity.
OneMedForum Annual Meeting
Also, on January 14th, the Company will be exhibiting and Mr. John Schafer, President and CEO, will be presenting a company overview during the 2nd Annual OneMedForum, at 3:30 p.m. (ET), at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, in San Francisco (CA).
The financial forum will bring together promising emerging healthcare and life science companies with strategic and venture investors focused on new technologies, emerging and micro cap public companies.
About Previstage(TM) GCC
Every year in North America, 174,000 people are diagnosed with colorectal cancer, and 142,000 colorectal cancer surgeries are performed. Staging a patient with colorectal cancer is crucial because it determines the patient’s course of treatment after the surgery. Current standard of care requires that pathologists microscopically examine a thin slice of tissue from each of the lymph nodes harvested during the patient’s surgery to see if cancer has spread. Currently, up to 30 percent of patients with no pathologically positive lymph nodes (stage I and II cancers) later develop recurrent disease, presumably through occult metastases that have escaped detection. Most of these patients do not receive additional therapies such as chemotherapy. With a detection capacity that is close to 100,000 more sensitive than microscopic methods, Previstage(TM) GCC provides clinicians with significantly more accurate information for staging a patient with colorectal cancer that will increase their confidence in making critical treatment decisions.
Clinical study data supports the potential for the GCC test to improve the current staging of colorectal patients. The National Cancer Institute sponsored a five-year prospective clinical trial of GCC testing in colorectal cancer patients. This study has been recently completed and the Company’s collaborators at Thomas Jefferson University are presenting the results at major medical conferences throughout the year. The Previstage(TM) GCC Colorectal Cancer Staging Test is a laboratory-developed test and its performance characteristics have been determined by DiagnoCure Oncology Laboratories.
About DiagnoCure
DiagnoCure is a life sciences company commercializing high-value cancer diagnostic tests and delivering laboratory services that increase clinician and patient confidence in making critical treatment decisions. In 2008, DiagnoCure Oncology Laboratories, a subsidiary of DiagnoCure Inc., launched the Previstage(TM) GCC Colorectal Cancer Staging Test, the first GCC based molecular test for the management of colorectal cancer. The Company also has a strategic alliance with GenProbe for the development and commercialization of a second-generation prostate cancer test using PCA3, DiagnoCure’s proprietary molecular marker. This test is also available through laboratories in the U.S. using PCA3 analyte specific reagents (ASR) from GenProbe, in Europe as the CE-marked PROGENSA(TM) PCA3 in vitro assay, and in Canada. For more information, visit www.diagnocure.com.
Forward-looking statements
This release contains forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expected. By their very nature, forward-looking statements are based on expectations and hypotheses and also involve risks and uncertainties, known and unknown, many of which are beyond DiagnoCure’s control. As a result, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements regarding the outcome of research and development projects, clinical studies and future revenues are based on management expectations. In addition, the reader is referred to the applicable general risks and uncertainties described in DiagnoCure’s most recent Annual Information Form under the heading “Risk Factors”. DiagnoCure undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein.
CONTACT: Investors: J.F. Bureau, CFA, Sr. Vice President and CFO,
DiagnoCure Inc., (418) 527-6100; Media: Isabelle Taschereau, Associate
Director, Corporate Affairs, DiagnoCure Inc., (418) 527-6100,
communications@diagnocure.com
