New Tests that Help Guide Drug Therapy

Two new tests for the Automated Cellular System (ACIS) have been developed to help doctors identify which patients might respond to new therapeutic regimens. ACIS is the product of ChromaVision Medical Systems, Inc. (San Juan Capistrano, CA, USA).

The first test, for epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR), is a diagnostic test useful in guiding therapy for patients with breast and other types of cancer. EGFR are present at fairly low levels in normal breast tisssue, while overexpression is known to occur in about 40% of primary breast cancers. These receptors also occur in nonsmall-cell lung cancer, tumors of the bladder, and squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck. Therapeutics that will be guided by EGFR overexpression have been developed and are in large-stage clinical trials.

The second test is for microvessel density (MVD), or tumor angiogenesis. The evaluation of angiogenesis will be useful in assessing the prognosis and metastatic potential of numerous types of solid tumors. Current testing is done manually and can be tedious, nonstandard, and subjective., says ChromaVision.

The sensitivity, accuracy, and reproducibility that ACIS avails to the physician will help to make new and potentially powerful drugs available to the best suited patients, notes Roscoe D. Atkinson, M.D., assistant professor of clinical pathology at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine (USA) and a collaborator on the development of the new tests.