Breast cancer gene-expression blood test

DiaGenic and Applied Biosystems have launched BCtect, a blood-based test for early detection of breast cancer. The test searches for a unique gene expression signature using a custom TaqMan array.

The test uses peripheral blood rather than tissue from the actual breast, providing a less invasive method of testing. It is also not affected by ethnic variation or the menopausal state of the patient, allowing for widespread use to diagnose breast cancer at an early stage.

The TaqMan Array consists of 96 TaqMan gene expression assays pre-loaded multiple times on a 384-well microfluidic card. These 384 simultaneous, real-time PCR reactions are performed without the need to use liquid-handling robots or multichannel pipettors. The array is run on the 7900HT Fast Real-time PCR System by Labindia.