US-based MetaStat has announced that a study of 481 women with breast cancer has confirmed that the MetaSite Score (a count of the number of TMEM structures) was found to be associated with a statistically significant increase in the risk of distant metastasis.
This relationship was found in the predefined subgroup of women with ER+/Her2- breast cancer, a subtype, which accounts for more than 60% of all breast cancers.
The sponsored study was conducted in collaboration with Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Weill Cornell Medical College.
The study also determined that the prognostic information provided by the MetaSite Score was independent of key clinicopathologic variables such as the number of lymph nodes to which the tumor had spread, the size of the primary tumor, and the IHC-4 score (a test which provides similar prognostic information to that of the Oncotype DX assay).
The MetaSite Breast test is a mechanism-based assay that works to detect areas of the breast where active cancer metastasis is developing which can then allow doctors to choose the best path for treatment.
The assay identifies the microanatomic landmark where tumor cells invade into the bloodstream via their direct interaction with endothelial cells and macrophages.
An earlier study, which was based on 60 patients with early stage breast cancer and published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, showed that MetaSite Score in the primary breast cancer was associated with increased risk of metastasis.
