Eventus
Diagnostics, and Israeli life-sciences company, has produced a blood test for
early detection of breast cancer, after 8 years of painstaking research. Breast
cancer is by far the most common cancer in women worldwide, with 1.6MM
new cases diagnosed in 2010.
Called
the Octavia Pink test, this first ever blood test to reveal cancer is available
now in Israel and Italy and is undergoing clinical trials to receive US Food
and Drug Administration approval. It
identifies markers that might indicate cancer or something else. Its innovations also lie in its examination
of antibodies in the blood to pinpoint this specific cancer.
The
company released a peer-reviewed study that confirms the diagnostic accuracy of
its Octava(TM) blood tests designed for use with screening mammography. The
study showed that the Octava(TM) Blue test has excellent sensitivity and good
specificity in helping to identify whether or not women who have had an
abnormal mammography result actually have breast cancer. The study was
conducted by researchers at Eventus Diagnostics and at major cancer centers in
the U.S., Italy and Israel.
Galit
Yahalom, Head of the 15-member Research Team, is a 43-year old Israeli mother
of two who has worked on this project since its inception. She says, “We know that it recognizes cancer
as an external enemy that must be destroyed. It is possible that each of us has
had instances of cancer we were unaware of, because our immune systems killed
it when it was still very small. For whatever reason, the immune system of
people with cancer is not functioning properly.” She also states, “For the last
decade, we have known that there is a connection between cancer and the immune
system.”
The
Octava breast cancer tests are the first in a new class of rapid, accurate and
cost-effective immune system-based blood tests that detect the presence or
absence of cancer by measuring ratios of autoantibodies produced by the body in
response to the presence of tumor-specific antigens.
