ALAMEDA, Calif., April 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Xenogen Corporation announced today that researchers have successfully imaged the spontaneous development of bioluminescent tumors in the pancreas and bladder of mice using the company’s proprietary optical imaging technologies. Xenogen will present these findings at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 97th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., on April 4. Xenogen believes these findings further validate the powerful role of Xenogen’s IVIS(R) in vivo optical imaging systems, tumor cell lines and transgenic mouse models in cancer research.
According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 32,300 people will die of pancreatic cancer in 2006, making it the fourth leading cause of cancer death overall in the United States. Pancreatic cancer is common, extremely difficult to treat and, therefore, has a very poor prognosis. Only 24 percent of patients with cancer of the exocrine pancreas will live one year past their diagnosis, and only 5 percent will live five years after diagnosis.
“There is a pressing need to develop better treatments for pancreatic cancer because of its clinical challenges and poor prognosis,” said Scott K. Lyons, Ph.D., senior scientist, oncology, Xenogen Corporation. “Our findings may make it easier and more cost efficient for researchers to develop effective treatments for pancreatic cancer.”
In past pre-clinical drug development studies, these types of transgenic pancreatic tumor models have been difficult to work with since the exact timing for tumor progression was estimated based on the age of the animal. Consequently, researchers have had difficulty knowing when to initiate treatment, how to best schedule treatment, or if the treatment was having an effect prior to the conclusion of the study.
Aided by Xenogen’s IVIS imaging systems, researchers can use these transgenic mice to non-invasively assess the spread and growth of the tumors in the pancreas in real-time. This provides researchers with additional insight into the how the tumors spread and grow. It can also tell them how effective a potential drug or treatment may be and what potential side effects are associated with specific targets.
Xenogen scientists as well as other researchers have previously demonstrated the value of non-invasive in vivo bioluminescence imaging for drug development, using a wide variety of other tumor model systems. As demonstrated in data being presented at the AACR meeting, researchers have successfully imaged the spontaneous development of tumors in the pancreas and bladder of mice using Xenogen’s animal models and IVIS imaging system.
To date, Xenogen has produced more than 8,000 unique transgenic mice and rats from more than 2,500 transgene constructs. More than 97 percent of all gene constructs have successfully produced transgenic mice and rats, or gene knockout lines. In sum, Xenogen offers the biomedical community an integrated array of genetically-modified animal creation and optical imaging capabilities.
This poster (#3456), will be presented in a session entitled Tumor Biology #23 on Tuesday, April 4 at 8:00 a.m. ET in the exhibit hall and will be published in the 2006 Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research. Copies of the abstract #3465 will be available at the Xenogen booth # 2208-2210.
About Xenogen Corporation
Xenogen Corporation is a leading biotechnology company offering an integrated suite of optical real-time in vivo imaging and genetic modification technologies that can help expedite drug discovery and development and significantly reduce the cost and time to market for new therapies. Xenogen’s VivoVision(TM) Systems non-invasively illuminate and monitor biological processes within living mammals, at the molecular level, in real time. The technology provides higher quality in vivo data earlier in the drug discovery and development process. VivoVision(TM) Solutions improve discovery and pre-clinical research in multiple therapeutic areas. VivoVision(TM) Biosciences represents more than 15 years of experience in the creation and characterization of animal models, including genetic modifications, comprehensive phenotyping, compound profiling and custom design and production of light producing cells, microorganisms and animals.
NOTE: More information is available at www.xenogen.com. Xenogen(R), Living Image(R), Lumina(TM), VivoVision(TM) and IVIS(R) are trademarks of Xenogen Corporation.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding the performance, adoption, intended uses and benefits of Xenogen’s imaging products and technologies. These forward-looking statements are based on Xenogen’s current expectations, estimates and assumptions and are subject to many risks, uncertainties and unknown future events that could cause actual results to differ materially. Actual performance, adoption, intended uses and benefits of Xenogen’s imaging products and technologies may differ materially from those set forth in this release due to the risks and uncertainties inherent in Xenogen’s business, including, without limitation: use and acceptance of Xenogen’s products and technologies by pharmaceutical, biotechnology, biomedical and chemical companies; Xenogen’s ability to continue to deliver its products on a timely basis; Xenogen’s ability to enforce its intellectual property rights or operate without infringing or misappropriating the proprietary rights of others; products, services or technologies introduced by competing companies; and other risk factors set forth in Xenogen’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For a discussion of these and other factors that could impact the performance, adoption, intended uses and benefits of Xenogen’s imaging products and technologies and cause them to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, please refer to Xenogen’s recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2005 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 24, 2006. Xenogen is under no obligation to (and specifically disclaims any such obligation to) update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Xenogen Corporation
CONTACT: investors, William A. Albright of Xenogen Corporation,+1-510-291-6100; or media, Kelly McKenna of Manning Selvage & Lee,+1-415-254-6239, or Kelly.mckenna@mslpr.com, for Xenogen Corporation
Web site: http://www.xenogen.com//
