Amsterdam – MammaPrint® can reduce the use of chemotherapy in breast cancer treatment by a quarter

Agendia’s MammaPrint® has been declared one of the four most pioneering healthcare innovations by the Dutch Innovation Platform. At the Healthcare summit, Minister Klink, chairman of the Healthcare Innovation Platform, presented MammaPrint® with an award as one of the four winning innovations that will be actively supported to allow them to be introduced at national level. Both the jury and the public who were present chose MammaPrint® as the winner of the most pioneering healthcare initiative. MammaPrint® is a revolutionary diagnostic test that establishes whether a breast cancer patient has a ‘low’ or a ‘high’ risk of metastases. This means that unnecessary chemotherapy can be avoided and quality of life improved. MammaPrint® will take on a pioneering role with regard to ensuring that innovations achieve quicker implementation in the healthcare sector. With this recognition of MammaPrint® by the Innovation Platform, Public Health Minster Klink made a commitment to include MammaPrint® as quickly as possible in the package of treatments for which reimbursement is available. This means that MammaPrint® will quickly become available to all breast cancer patients.

MammaPrint®

MammaPrint® is a molecular test, based on so-called DNA micro-array technology, which can be used to assess the risk of metastases at an early stage of breast cancer with greater accuracy than is possible using conventional methods. As the test allows a better distinction to be drawn between high and low-risk patients, it is possible to reduce the number of breast cancer patients who are treated with chemotherapy. This means an improvement in the quality of life of breast cancer patients and an enormous cost saving. European research has revealed that fifty percent of chemotherapy treatments among breast cancer patients are later discovered to have been unnecessary. MammaPrint® is available for all lymph-node-negative (and 1-3 node) breast cancer patients and there is no treatment restriction. MammaPrint® has at present not yet been included as a treatment under the healthcare system. Nevertheless, many women find their way to Agendia themselves in order to request this print. Every year almost 13,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer, making it the most common form of cancer amongst women in the Netherlands.

Agendia B.V.

Agendia, headquartered in Amsterdam, provides innovative diagnostic testing for the treatment of cancer patients which is based on gene expression analysis. Agendia was established by researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute. MammaPrint® forms a new category of molecular diagnostic test (the In Vitro Diagnostic Multivariate Index Assays (IVDMIA)), and was the first to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in the diagnosis of breast cancer. Time Magazine proclaimed MammaPrint® to be one of the best discoveries of 2007 in the area of healthcare.

Note for the press:
If you would like more information about MammaPrint® or Agendia BV, please contact Susanne Peters on +31 (0)6 47572101 or send an e-mail to: susanne@vankeep.nl