Biohit Oyj Press Release August 1, 2016 at 01:45 pm local time (EEST)
A population-based screening study for gastric cancer risk has been completed in Russia. The study results confirm the previous study results showing that GastroPanel® detects patients at increased risk for developing gastric cancer. GastroPanel® test was used for screening of randomly selected asymptomatic people in a country with high incidence of gastric cancer. The results have been published in the August issue of an international cancer journal Anticancer Research.
The study was conducted in 2013-2015 in St. Petersburg. A cohort of 918 asymptomatic subjects (aging 50 years), were randomly selected among attenders of two hospitals for GastroPanel® testing. GastroPanel® is an ELISA-based blood test measuring the blood plasma levels of four biomarkers. GastroPanel® is used in diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection (HP), atrophic gastritis (AG) and the gastric cancer risk resulting from them (see www.biohithealthcare.com/additional-information ).
GastroPanel® test is a specific screening test for the risk factors of gastric cancer
In the study, HP infection without AG was detected in 76.7% of the study subjects, while AG was diagnosed in 10.8%. All GastroPanel® results indicating AG and a randomly selected 5% of the GastroPanel test-negative subjects were examined by gastroscopy and biopsies. GastroPanel®-test proved to be both sensitive and specific (>95%) in detection of the two gastric cancer risk conditions (HP and AG).
Chief Medical Director, Kari Syrjänen, Biohit Oyj: ‘Globally, gastric cancer is the fifth most common malignancy. For cancer prevention, a systematic screening of the risk factors, HP and AG, would be important. The present study shows that GastroPanel® is an accurate test for detection of the individuals at risk for gastric cancer.’
CEO, Semi Korpela, Biohit Oyj: ‘With the GastroPanel® test, gastric cancer risk conditions can be found years before the development of cancer, which offers an opportunity for effective primary prevention. It is well known also in Finland, that still many gastric cancer cases lead to examination and treatment only, when the patient already has alarming symptoms and a poor prognosis. An organised population-based screening of the gastric cancer risk groups should be seriously considered also in Finland, as it saves significantly healthcare costs. The unique and highly informative Finnish GastroPanel® innovation would offer an opportunity for this.’
Scientific paper: Prevalence of H. pylori Infection and Atrophic Gastritis in a Population-based Screening with Serum Biomarker Panel (GastroPanel®) in St. Petersburg (Laslo D. Roman, Ruslan Lukyanchuk, Oleg A. Sablin, Elena I. Araslanova, Carita Eklund, Panu Hendolin, Lea Paloheimo and Kari Syrjänen) Anticancer Research 36: 4129-4138 (2016).
Additional information: CEO Semi Korpela, Biohit Oyj tel. +358 9 773 861 investor.relations@biohit.fi www.biohithealthcare.com www.biohithealthcare.com/additional-information www.gastropanel.com/decision-makers/screening-model
Biohit in brief
Biohit Oyj is a globally operating Finnish biotechnology company. Biohit mission is “Innovating for Health” – we produce innovative products and services to promote research and early diagnosis. Biohit is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, and has subsidiaries in Italy and the UK. Biohit Series B share (BIOBV) is quoted on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki in the Small cap/Healthcare group. www.biohithealthcare.com
