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CeMines establishes research & development laboratory
Colorado | Monday, January 20, 2003, 08:00 Hrs  [IST]

CeMines Inc., the company that is developing proprietary 'molecular fingerprinting' technology for early detection and treatment of cancer, has established a research and development facility at the Cedar-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

"Our facility at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center allows us to incorporate all of our R&D activities under one roof," said Dr. Toomas Neuman, chief scientific officer of CeMines, who will work out of the laboratory. "This state-of-the-art facility not only meets our current needs, it is designed to accommodate expected growth over the coming months."

As part of the body's immune response to cancer, antibodies are produced to fight cancer cells. These antibodies, which reflect the molecular signature or 'fingerprint' of a tumor, are generated in cancer's earliest stages, even when the tumor is a collection of single cells. CeMines' 'molecular fingerprinting' technology detects these antibodies in the blood to precisely diagnose a variety of tumors. The detection of these antibodies could result in the discovery of cancer months, perhaps years, before today's conventional methods.

On October 22nd, the company announced that in multi-site clinical trials of its 'molecular fingerprinting'-based blood test, cancer was correctly identified in each of the 177 patients (100 percent sensitivity) who were known to have one of four different tumor types - lung, breast, gastrointestinal (GI) or prostate. CeMines' blood test also correctly ruled out cancer in each of the 72 control patients (100 percent specificity).

CeMines is building a large database of cancer patients that includes the patients' specific molecular profile, the treatment administered and the results. By comparing the molecular profile to CeMines' database, doctors will know how that specific cancer has responded to a given treatment in the past, and will have better information to make treatment recommendations. Hundreds of experimental drugs for the treatment of cancer have failed FDA approval because, until now, it has not been possible to predict which patient will respond positively. CeMines intends to leverage its ability to determine the molecular specificity of each individual tumor into Intelligent Drug Design of more precise and accurate cancer drugs.

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