NAF Testing in Women with Prior Breast Cancer

Breast cancer survivors. Women who have had breast cancer are at a higher risk for recurrence of cancer or for a new malignancy. The ACS has estimated that in 2010, there were 2.5 MM breast cancer survivors in the US. Atossa believes these women would be candidates for regular MASCT System screening.

Post Menopausal Breast Cancer. There is overwhelming evidence that post menopausal breast cancer is determined principally by estrogen, which induces cancer related biomarkers such as Cathepsin D. Since the serum levels of estrogen drops significantly when the ovary stops making it at menopause, the source of the hormone in breast cancer was not understood.

In 2006, investigators at Northwestern University demonstrated that NAF contains estrogen and related sex hormones, that there is no correlation between serum and NAF concentrations of these hormones, preventing serum tests from finding these high risk patients, and that the likely source is synthesis within the breast itself.

The authors concluded that measuring female sex hormone biomarkers like Cathepsin D in NAF may be useful in identifying post menopausal women at high risk for breast cancer and in monitoring chemoprevention trials, since the mechanism of action of the current therapies is interference with female sex hormone actions. US patent 7,128,877, licensed exclusively to Atossa, covers testing NAF for the biomarker Cathepsin D. There are approximately 32 MM post menopausal women and Atossa believes NAF sex hormone screening could help identify women who have high levels and are thus at high risk.