Study Results Support Use of DiviTum TK1 Biomarker Assay for Evaluation of Pancreatic Cancer
22 Nov 2017
In collaboration with University of Heidelberg, Germany, results from a clinical study of pancreatic cancer is published in the Pancreas scientific journal. The results demonstrate that Biovica’s DiviTum assay can provide an accurate prognosis and evaluation of treatment efficacy.
The proof of concept study, including 404 patients, provides evidence for using DiviTum as a dynamic biomarker before and during therapy to give important answers regarding prognosis and how effective therapy is. Biovica’s assay was prognostic for overall survival in all patients. For patients receiving therapy ahead of surgery, preoperative low DiviTum values demonstrated significantly higher overall survival compared to patients with high values.
Click here for more news about the DiviTum® Biomarker >>
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Hence, tools that can provide more and early information regarding the disease is in great need. With better and faster evaluation of treatments Biovica aims to provide a better tool when evaluating therapy options. The study provides additional evidence and future expanded clinical potential outside of breast cancer for DiviTum.
The DiviTum assay determines thymidine kinase activity in a blood sample and is a practical, non-invasive tool for predicting outcome and monitoring efficacy in solid tumors. Biovica have an ongoing trial program including more than 10 clinical studies and 1 500 patients to document the unique capabilities of the assay in solid tumors.
“It is very important to know if a therapy is effective or not. The results provide evidence for using DiviTum to give accurate prognosis and guidance regarding therapy efficacy in patients with pancreatic tumors. Our study is the first to demonstrate that a blood based marker like DiviTum can give important prognostic information to clinicians treating pancreatic cancer and become a tool for early evaluation of neoadjuvant therapy efficacy and treatment options. Additionally despite the fact that CA 19-9 is still the gold standard biomarker in pancreatic cancer, for patients with low CA 19-9 or CA 19-9 non-secretors, the S-TK assay could be an alternative screening marker”, says Dr Klaus Felix, Ph.D, Department of General Surgery, University of Heidelberg.
“The results presented from our collaboration with Dr Felix at the University of Heidelberg demonstrates the utility of DiviTum for precise prognosis and therapy efficacy evaluation for patients with pancreatic cancer. This builds on already published data on other tumors and provides evidence beyond our extensive trial program in breast cancer, with the aim for DiviTum to become a standard tool for predicting outcome and early efficacy evaluation for patients with specific solid tumors”, says Anders Rylander, CEO Biovica.