Without a biopsy, it’s difficult to determine whether a woman has breast cancer. But biopsies are costly and invasive – and often, in women with fibrous breast tissue and no cancer – they’re actually unnecessary.
Scottsdale startup Provista Diagnostics is developing a way to help diagnose women’s cancers more accurately – with just the use of a proteomics-based assay and standard imaging.
It just raised $3.9 million, according to a regulatory filing – on top of about $19.5 million raised since 2012. It’s just about ready to commercialize its breast cancer diagnostic, called Videssa, and is in the development phase for ovarian, endometrial and HPV-associated cancers. Calls to Provista to ask what the new funding’s for were unreturned, but our money’s on using it to commercialize the Videssa test.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
Just last week, the startup announced the interim analysis results of a breast cancer screening that used Provista’s assay in conjunction with imaging. In a cohort of 508 patients, Provista was able to distinguish between benign breast disease and invasive breast cancers – determining whether or not a biopsy and further cancer treatment was even necessary.
“The precise diagnosis of breast cancer is often confounded by the presence of benign breast tissue and high breast density in women,” CEO David Reese said in a statement. “Thus, developing new technologies to detect biomarkers associated with breast cancer may assist in the precise detection of cancer in a broader population of women, suggesting utility in both pre- and post-menopausal patients.”
What makes proteomics a better approach in cancer diagnostics? According to Provista, the blood proteome changes constantly as a consequence of disease. Proteomic technologies provide a real-time assessment of the physiological state of a patient, identifying changes in protein levels or patterns of protein signatures in the blood specific to a particular cancer.
The company says its proteomics approach combines the sensitiviy of autoantibodies with the specificity of known serum protein biomarkers.
Along with imaging, Reese said the company’s assays “may reduce the number of missed actionable breast cancers while avoiding the stress and added diagnostic costs of false negative reports.”
[Image from Flickr user williami5]
