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SBIR and STTR Success Story for OncoMetrics, Inc. (Information Posted/Updated on 07/04/2004) |
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OncoMetrics, Inc. 237 Strobel Road Trumbull, CT 06611 Contact: Michael Retsky Phone: 203-452-1649 E-mail: retsky@jimmy.harvard.edu |
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Project Title: Precise breast cancer staging with an expert system |
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| Related Award(s): 1R43CA65314 | |
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Technology Developed:
We developed a computer simulation of breast cancer growth and development based on a mature database from Milan. A major discovery was that dormancy was very common in breast cancer and that dormancy can be terminated stochastically or as a result of surgery. One explanation is that surgery to remove a primary tumor induces angiogenesis of dormant distant disease.
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| Key Words: angiogenesis, breast cancer, surgery, dormancy. | |
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Uses of Technology/Products/Service:
This did not lead to a commercial success due to some internal problems not related to science. However this has developed into a major cancer research project now conducted at Harvard Medical School in Judah Folkman's laboratory.
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Other Comments Related to Company's Success Story:
As a direct result of the research done under this grant, we have developed and published a new explanation for the mammography paradox for women age 40-49. That is, as reported by eight randomized trials of breast cancer screening conducted over the past 40 years, women aged 50-59 who are screened have a 20 - 30% mortality advantage compared to unscreened control subjects. However, when women aged 40-49 years are screened, there is either no advantage or a slight disadvantage for the first 6-8 years in individual trials, meta-analysis and overviews of all trials. After that, an advantage begins to appear (25-30). These paradoxical data have not been adequately explained. A consensus review committee (NIH 1997) advised against screening all young women for breast cancer. A minority report came to the opposite conclusion. This developed into a major controversy. Our explanation is that early detection finds smaller tumors with fewer nodes positive which provides an advantage. However the resulting surgery accelerates relapse for approximately 20% of premenopausal node-positive patients. This temporarily overcomes the modest advantage. Afterwards, the expected advantage appears. This is published in Retsky et al. Current Opinion in Obstetrics and Gynecology 15:1-8, 2003. Also see Retsky et al. Breast Cancer Research May 2004 for a late update of this research.
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