Fujirebio Diagnostics Inc, Malvern, Pa, a cancer diagnostics company, has received a patent for its HE4 biomarker for ovarian cancer.
The patent covers the measurement of HE4 and antibodies to HE4 in blood, serum, and plasma. It includes claims in which HE4 is used in conjunction with other ovarian cancer markers such as the company’s CA 125.
HE4 is a simple blood test. Fujirebio has completed a multi-center clinical trial to evaluate the clinical utility of the test in more than 250,000 women nationwide diagnosed annually with a suspicious pelvic mass.
The company will continue developing its biomarker for screening, detecting, monitoring, and prognosis of ovarian cancer.
Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death in women and the second
most common female reproductive cancer. It is expected that 23,000 women will be diagnosed this year with ovarian cancer and another 15,000 women will die from the disease.
Commonly referred to as the silent killer,”ovarian cancer is hard to diagnose because symptoms can be attributed to a variety of causes. Some 70-75% of ovarian cancers are diagnosed at a late stage when the 5-year overall survival rate is 20-25%.
In women with a diagnosis of Stage I disease, the probability of a cure is 90-95%.
