Firm will apply its discovery tool to center’s samples.
BG Medicine entered into a research collaboration with The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center aimed at improving the treatment of breast cancer.
BG Medicine will apply its biomarker discovery technology to the analysis of clinical samples provided by M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. The goal of the collaboration is to identify novel, specific, and sensitive blood-based protein and metabolite biomarkers in breast cancer patients who are receiving selected treatments.
“In the past decade several significant new medicines for the treatment of breast cancer have become available,” notes Pieter Muntendam, M.D., president and CEO of BG Medicine. “However, they are not equally helpful or suitable for every patient. In order to use these therapies more effectively, it is necessary to know which patients are likely to respond.
“Biomarkers give us an opportunity to identify who will benefit from certain treatments before the treatment is started or for whom the treatment is working early after initiation of therapy and before efficacy is clinically detectable.”
Dr. Muntendam concludes that, “These treatment response diagnostics will enable more successful and cost-effective individualized oncology care than previously possible.”
