Biovica and the International Breast Cancer Study Group & Breast International Group in Collaboration to Improve Outcome for Women with Breast Cancer

BERN, Switzerland and UPPSALA, Sweden, December 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Biovica's DiviTum™ technology has been selected by the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG, Bern) and the Breast International Group (BIG, Brussels) to be part of a state of the art trial, studying the effects of palbociclib, a promising new cancer drug. 

The study, named PYTHIA, will follow women with advanced breast cancer being treated with anti-hormonal therapy in combination with palbociclib, a cancer therapy belonging to a class of drugs called CDK-inhibitors - developed to stop proliferation of tumors. Palbociclib has demonstrated significant slowing of breast cancer progression and was approved in the US earlier this year.

DiviTum™ will be used to analyse blood taken from patients before and during therapy. There are no biomarkers available today for this new class of drugs. The main purposes by including DiviTum™ are to explore whether DiviTum™ can assist physicians in predicting which patient will respond to this therapy and in monitoring drug efficacy during treatment.

"We want to explore the potential of DiviTum™ to identify those breast cancer patients with a higher likelihood of response to palbociclib. We will also use DiviTum™ to monitor patients while on treatment with palbociclib with the aim of testing whether this could be proposed as a new bio- marker of treatment efficacy," says Dr Luca Malorni, MD, PhD, Principal Investigator of the PYTHIA study, Hospital of Prato, Italy.

"It's a great honor and opportunity for us that our technology has been selected by IBCSG and BIG for inclusion in this very important study. Together with BIG and IBCSG our objective is to provide a tool for evaluating the best treatment options for patients and monitor efficacy for this promising class of drugs," says Anders Rylander, CEO Biovica.

Facts about IBCSG & BIG 

IBCSG is dedicated to innovative clinical cancer research designed to improve the prognosis of women with breast cancer. IBCSG has been and continues to be a pioneer in research into combined hormonal therapy and chemotherapy, timing and duration of adjuvant therapies, assessment of quality of life of breast cancer patients, tailored treatment investigations, evaluating endocrine therapies and translational research. More than 38000 patients have participated in IBCSG-coordinated clinical trials since 1978.

BIG is a non-profit organization based in Brussels, Belgium uniting over 50 academic breast cancer research groups from around the world. Its mission is to facilitate breast cancer research at international level, by stimulating cooperation between its members and other academic networks, and collaborating with, but working independently from, the pharmaceutical industry to run innovative clinical trials and research programmes.

See also http://www.ibcsg.org , http://www.bigagainstbreastcancer.org

Facts about Biovica and DiviTum™ 

Biovica is a bio-diagnostic company focused on providing improved diagnostics, predictive data and monitoring of cancer patient under treatment. Biovica has developed DiviTum™, a highly sensitive assay for measuring cell proliferation. Since one of the most fundamental characteristics of cancer is uncontrolled and in-creased cell growth, DiviTum™ enables valuable prediction capability and monitoring of compounds regulating cell proliferation and the cell cycle. Biovica is ISO 13485 certified for Quality Management Systems and DiviTum™ is CE labeled and MPA registered.

See also http://www.biovica.com