Bonus perk to OB and L&D, besides the happy-happy joy-joy stuff and everyone’s in a good mood and telling a patient “Congratulations” gains you instant rapport with them: some of the best ice to chew on can be found in the L&D and post-partum floors. As an avid ice cruncher, good ice makes all the difference.

Still first place ice in my heart: my grandmother’s old nursing home (but this will likely always be number one, as me getting my grandmother ice was one way I felt like I could make her feel better).

It’s the last day of Breast Awareness month, so I thought this post would be quite apt!
This year sees the tenth anniversary of the discovery of breast cancer gene BRCA2!

According to estimates of lifetime risk, about 13.2% of women will develop breast cancer, compared with estimates of 36% to 85% with an altered BRCA2 gene.  So, if you have an altered BRCA2 gene you’re 3-7 times more likely to develop breast cancer than women without the gene.

The groundbreaking discovery has given women with a family history of the disease real reason to celebrate with the greatest gift of all - extending lives and proactive choices about their care.

For further information on the BRCA genes and BRCA testing visit:

www.myriad.com and www.opaldia.com

Elaine Warburton

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We just had a 5.6er here, felt by everyone in the hospital. Lacking any semblance of survival instincts, I randomly just start walking down the hall. Let’s hope there’s no aftershocks.

Following my article on latest prognostic tests for breast cancer, Dutch firm Agendia BV are leading the field again!  Their Mammaprint^®  test is the first microarray to gain FDA approval and now they have won a prestigious award for innovation in the field of breast cancer.

The 2007 Frost & SullivanEuropean Product Innovation Award in the field of biomarker-based breast cancer diagnostics is presented to Netherlands-based Agendia BV, for its new method of translating a breast cancer prognosis microarray signature into a high-throughput diagnostic test called MammaPrint.

The Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Innovation is presented each year to the company that has demonstrated excellence in new products and technologies within its industry. The recipient company has shown innovation by launching a broad line of emerging products and technologies.

Agendia’s product offering employs a robust custom-made microarray that efficiently analyses gene expression profiles of 70 known cancer genes and determines the probability of breast cancer recurring within five to ten years after initial determination.

“The MammaPrint^® breast cancer recurrence test has been proven to outperform clinical parameters in predicting distant metastasis in breast cancer patients,” notes Frost & SullivanResearch Analyst Sandhya Kamath. “Based on a platform of sophisticated microarray expression profiling and proprietary algorithms to interpret gene signatures, MammaPrint^® categorizes breast cancer patients based on prognosis.”

The MammaPrint^® test measures the activity levels of each of the 70 genes in a sample (surgically excised breast tumor) and then, based on a specific algorithm, classifies breast cancer patients into different groups based on their risk for developing distant metastasis. These results, in conjunction with other clinical information and laboratory tests, assists physicians in identifying the most suitable therapy and provide patients with opportunities for better treatment.

Agendia was granted the ISO 17025 accreditation and CE registration for the MammaPrint^®in 2005. In February 2007, Agendia became the first company to receive a 510K clearance from the US FDA for it’s MammaPrint^®breast cancer prognosis test on fresh or fresh-frozen tumour tissue under the newly defined in vitro diagnostics multivariate index assay (IVDMIA) regulations.

“In June 2007, Agendia received a second clearance from the FDA for its MammaPrint^®sampling and room temperature shipping procedure, using a RNA preserving solution (RNARetain^®*),”adds Ms. Kamath. “The use of RNARetain in combination with MammaPrint^® is even simpler than the commonly used formalin fixation and paraffin embedding (FFPE) method and is specifically designed and validated to preserve RNA integrity.”

“Agendia is truly one of the most promising companies endeavoring to translate gene expression analysis into clinical tests,”concludes Ms. Kamath. “In addition to MammaPrint®, the company has two more innovative diagnostic tests in the market: the CupPrint, a test that determines the tissue type of a tumor of unknown origin, and the DiscoverPrint, which predicts responders and non-responders to experimental new cancer drugs by analyzing RNA from tumors treated with these drugs with DNA microarrays.”

Agendia are certainly a company to watch!

Elaine WarburtonBSc RN ACA   www.geneticsandhealth.com

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I’m enjoying KevinMD’s new sponsor, Insider Medicine, particularly the In the Clinic tips like this one about Diabetic Retinopathy. I’d love to see segments like this from specialists from every field, with info they’d like referring physicians to know for their top one or two diseases. Love the medical student focus as well (but I’d argue these are useful for everyone, not just med students).

I think it’d also be great to hear from specialists with key clinical pearls–so not just about diseases but tips and tricks from every specialty.

(And if you’re reading this, Insider Medicine, your website could really use a redesign, or at least some tweaking–it’s really hard to tell what page you’re on if you’re deep in the site. I have a couple ideas, if you’re curious.)