GTG hails breast cancer risk detection study

Genetic Technologies (ASX:GTG) says an independent Australian study supports the effectiveness of its BREVAGen test in detecting breast cancer risk.

The study, from the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Molecular, Environmental, Genetic and Analytic Epidemiology, was published in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment.

Authors Dr Gillian Dite and Professor John Hopper investigated the impact of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotypes on the predictive accuracy of the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool (BRCAT) model. A population-based sample of genotyping data was collated from the Australian Breast Cancer Family Registry.

The study concluded that including the seven SNPs associated with breast cancer risk improves the discriminatory accuracy of BCRAT.

The seven SNPs are used in Genetic Technologies’ BREVAGen breast cancer risk assessment tool. The company markets the test in Australia, the EU and the US.

In a statement, Genetic Technologies said it is “actively progressing a research program with leading international academic collaborators to confirm these observations in other ethnic populations and to incorporate the full portfolio of currently known common breast cancer susceptibility variants into the BREVAGen test.”

Genetic Technologies shares were trading unchanged at $0.098 as of around 1.30 pm on Tuesday.