Diagnostic Tests Identify Ovarian Cancer Progression, Apoptosis

Results of studies using FASgen Diagnostics's FAS-detect IHC and FAS- detect ELISA research tests were the subject of an address to Society of Gynecologic Oncologists annual meeting last week in Tampa, Florida.

The report, "Over-expression of Fatty Acid Synthase (FAS) in Recurrent Ovarian Serous Carcinomas and its Potential Diagnostic and Therapeutic Role in Chemoresistant Disease," presented the data from studies conducted at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center in cooperation with the Norwegian Radium Hospital.

The FAS-detect IHC test was used in evaluating 321 samples of serous ovarian cancer. FAS expression correlated with high grade disease and was an independent prognostic indicator. Patients with high levels of FAS expression survived for 36.9 months compared to 60.4 months for low expressors. Furthermore, FAS levels were highest in recurrent tumors. This is similar to prior findings in prostate and breast cancer. The FAS-detect ELISA was used to measure FAS levels in ovarian cancer ascites in 117 advanced stage serous carcinomas and 58 non-malignant controls, producing median results of 46.3 ng/ml of FAS in the ovarian cancer samples and 1.3 ng/ml in the controls.

The report further identifies the apoptotic effect of several FASi compounds from FASgen, Inc., an affiliated company of FASgen Diagnostics, LLC, which makes FASi compounds intended for therapeutic use in treating cancer. The results for FASgen's C-93 demonstrated significant apoptosis in SKOV3 and A2780 cell lines, i.e., > 70% within 48 hours.

Similar findings were obtained with Taxol and Carboplatin resistant cell lines indicating that FAS inhibitors produce significant apoptosis to overcome hypoxia-induced chemoresistance. These in vitro data confirm the extensive xenograft results in ovarian, lung and colon cancers previously announced by FASgen. FAS is thus a promising target for chemoresistant and recurrent ovarian cancer.