OncoVista (OVIT.PK) Reports on Gene Expression Profiling Study in Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) - a Molecular Tool for Therapy Individualization

SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OncoVista Innovative Therapies, Inc. (Pink Sheets:OVIT), reported that the AdnaTest BreastCancer Select & Detect kit, manufactured by AdnaGen AG (Langenhagen, Germany), is now available for research as well as for pay-out-of-pocket patients in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The research team at the Czech Academy of Science and its spin-off company, TATAA Molecular Diagnostics, have conducted several research efforts with the goal to prove the capability of the CTC test to improve therapeutic decision making in several cancers.

The team has a solid scientific, as well as entrepreneurial, background and enjoys support from established local key opinion leaders within the oncology community. The collaboration with the leading national oncology centers has resulted in several ongoing clinical research projects, many of them supervised by the team's expert, Dr. Katarina Kolostova -- in particular, a gene expression profiling study of 140 breast cancer patients that has shown the potential for therapy individualization. Preliminary results from the project illuminate the evolution of the CTCs in the peripheral blood throughout disease progression. These findings, if reproducible on a larger patient population, will have a substantial impact on therapy prognostics, Dr. Kolostova says. When established in routine diagnostics, the CTC examination will become a kind of "real-time" biopsy, reflecting the tumor changes in time, thus facilitating better therapeutic decisions. This will lead to improved overall health outcomes in patients while reducing treatment costs. The research team led by Dr. Kolostova is also collaborating with Hoffmann-La Roche on testing the suitability of the minimally invasive CTC test as a surrogate to tissue biopsy in breast cancer patients who have relapsed. The ultimate goal of the Czech TATAA Molecular Diagnostics research team is to convince the expert community as well as the national insurance carriers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia to reimburse the new CTC test or its sub-indication, thus making it available to support decision making in the treatment of the whole cancer patient community.

OncoVista Innovative Therapies, Inc., is a biopharmaceutical company involved in the development of targeted anticancer therapies by using tumor-associated biomarkers. In conjunction with its subsidiary, AdnaGen AG, which is based in Langenhagen, Germany, the Company has developed and currently markets patented diagnostic kits in Europe for the detection of circulating tumor cells in patients with breast, colon, ovarian and prostate cancers under the brand name AdnaGen™. The Company has also developed research products for the detection of steroid receptors and cancer stem cells and has research contracts in place with major pharmaceutical companies and recognized U.S. cancer research facilities.

OncoVista has an experienced management team specialized in the development of targeted, anticancer drugs. OncoVista’s targeted drug development uses the proprietary, state-of-the-art molecular platform of AdnaGen AG. Further information on OncoVista can be found at www.oncovista.com.

Forward-Looking Statements: A number of statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the applicable statements.