Point-of-care Test To Be Available in Doctors' Offices

A point-of-care test for cancer is being developed that will be available for use in the doctor's office rather than in a laboratory setting.

The Recaf 'point-of-care' system would be targeted at physicians who either suspect a malignancy at a patient's first visit or are monitoring a patient after cancer treatment. The doctor would carry out the test in their office in a matter of minutes while examining the patient. The test will orient the physician in the diagnostic procedure and according to the reading prompt the request of a more accurate test from a laboratory, such as the Recaf serum test.

BioCurex (Richmond, Canada) has been engaged in converting its original radioactive-labeled Recaf blood test for cancer detection into a non-radioactive, colorimetric assay. The information gathered in the format conversion strongly supports the feasibility of a 'point-of-care' blood test for cancer detection.

There is no comparable cancer detection test in use. Thus, it is difficult to estimate its potential market size with accuracy. Taking into consideration that there are 100 million visits from new patients each year, we estimate a potential market size for Recaf 'point-of-care' tests of 50 million determinations per year in the United States alone. The European Union and Japan combined have twice the population of the United States and therefore it is safe to assume that they represent another 100 million tests. Given the low cost of the test and the possibility that it might be the only Recaf test affordable in many regions, it seems reasonable to allocate another 50 million tests to China, India, and the rest of the world. Assuming a price of US$5 per test, the estimated potential market would therefore be approximately $1 billion per year.

BioCurex, Inc. is a biotechnology company that is developing products based on patented/proprietary technology in the areas of cancer diagnosis, imaging, and therapy. The technology identifies a cancer marker known as Recaf, which is found on malignant cells from a variety of cancer types but is absent in most normal or benign cells.

BioCurex has signed a licensing agreement with Abbott Laboratories for BioCurex's Recaf Cancer technology as outlined in a joint press release dated March 29, 2005. The release noted that the cancer marker Recaf has emerged as a potential biomarker that may be useful in the development of new cancer diagnostics tests. Preliminary studies from the investigators at BioCurex have reported a high level of clinical sensitivity and specificity for Recaf in many of the most common cancers, including prostate, breast, colorectal, lung, and others.




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