AUSTIN, Texas, March 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — (Nasdaq:
VRML) –Vermillion, a molecular diagnostics company, today
announced the presentation of positive preliminary data from its
collaboration with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to
identify biomarkers that improve on the specificity of CA125 for
the identification of malignant ovarian tumors. These results
were presented at the 42nd Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer of the
Society of Gynecologic Oncologists, March 6-9, 2011 in Orlando,
Florida.
The poster titled “Identification of Biomarkers to Improve
Specificity in Preoperative Assessment of Ovarian Tumor for Risk of
Cancer” evaluated more than 20 candidate biomarkers for their
ability to complement CA125 in distinguishing benign from malignant
ovarian tumors, with an emphasis on markers that could improve on
the clinical specificity. Of the candidate markers, three markers
demonstrated the ability to complement CA125 using multivariate
logistic regression. These studies were conducted by Drs. Daniel
Chan and Zhen Zhang at the Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine. Dr. Chan is Professor of Pathology, Oncology,
Radiology, and Urology at the Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine, and Director of the Clinical Chemistry Division and
Co-Director of the Pathology Core Laboratory of Johns Hopkins
Hospital. He is also Director of the Biomarker Discovery Center at
Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Zhen Zhang is an Associate Professor
of Pathology also at the Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine.
“Markers that can improve the clinical specificity of current
tools for ovarian cancer detection will enhance our ability to test
patients in whom cancer is suspected. These results pave the way
for further studies that could lead to additional novel tests in
the ovarian cancer space,” said Dr. Eric T. Fung, Chief Science
Officer at Vermilli
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