For
Release at 6:00am EST March 14, 2002
NEWS –
NEWS – NEWS
ANTICANCER, INC., DEVELOPS TECHNOLOGY TO EXTERNALLY IMAGE SINGLE CANCER CELLS IN MICE
San
Diego, March 14, 2002. AntiCancer,
Inc., announced today new external imaging technology that allows direct
visualization of single tumor cells growing internally in the mouse, increasing
detection sensitivity many-fold. Many tumors that were previously hidden are now clearly
observable with AntiCancer’s new technology.
The new technology enables acquisition of tumor images and related
quantitative growth data previously impossible to obtain.
Single tumor cells, genetically engineered to express the jellyfish green
fluorescent protein (GFP), growing on the brain, lung, liver, and pancreas were
externally imaged by fluorescent light. These
new findings are published in the latest edition of The
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.
”This
new single-cell-resolution fluorescent tumor imaging technology is a
breakthrough,” said AntiCancer’s Vice President and General Manager, Shigeo
Yagi. “We can now follow single
internal tumor cells externally to develop drugs that prevent recurrence from
previously undetectable tumor cells, which is a major cause of death in cancer
of the breast and other tumors. We expect to use or license this new imaging technology with
the numerous pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies now using our mouse
models for cancer drug discovery, evaluation, and development” said Dr. Yagi.
AntiCancer, founded in 1984 and based in San Diego, is
also developing new drugs for cancer based on genetic engineering, targeting
cancer specific metabolic defects. The
company is also developing diagnostics for cancer and other diseases as well as
gene therapy of cancer and other diseases.
For
more information, see AntiCancer’s website at www.anticancer.com
Yang, M., Baranov, E., Wang, J-W., Jiang, P., Wang, X., Sun, F-X., Bouvet, M., Moosa, A.R., Penman, S., and Hoffman, R.M. Direct external imaging of nascent cancer, tumor progression, angiogenesis, and metastasis on internal organs in the fluorescent orthotopic model. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99, 3824-3829, 2002