HILDEN, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- QIAGEN N.V.(NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced the European launch of its novel therascreen PITX2 RGQ PCR Kit, the first clinically validated DNA methylation assay that helps predict the response of certain high-risk breast cancer patients to anthracycline-based chemotherapy. The CE-IVD marked assay is QIAGEN’s first epigenetic test in breast cancer, as well as the latest addition to QIAGEN’s broad portfolio of therascreen tests delivering individualized genetic insights to guide medical decisions in lung, colorectal and other cancers.

More than 460,000 women in Europe are newly diagnosed with breast cancer each year, with about 50% characterized as high-risk for disease recurrence. Anthracycline-based chemotherapy is the standard of care, yet not all patients benefit equally – and side effects can be as severe as congestive heart failure and leukemia. The therascreen PITX2 assay provides physicians and their patients a novel, independent criterion to augment clinical information used in selection of the most suitable therapy to treat certain high-risk breast cancer.

“We are very pleased to introduce this important test for Personalized Healthcare used to assess the best treatment approach for high-risk breast cancer patients. This reliable, clinically validated assay determines the PITX2 DNA methylation ratio to differentiate between patients who are more likely – or less likely – to show beneficial response to anthracyclines,” said Thierry Bernard, Senior Vice President, Molecular Diagnostics Business Area, for QIAGEN. “The simple workflow of the therascreen PITX2 assay provides automated processing from Sample to Insight in less than 48 hours. The test can easily be adopted by customers already running other therascreen assays on our widely used QIAsymphony automation platform.”

Please find the full press release here

Link: (https://corporate.qiagen.com/newsroom/press-releases/2018/20180206_PITX2_CE_IVD?sc_lang=en)

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