TIME Magazine Names GeneSearch(TM) One of the Top 10 Medical Breakthroug...(ndergo breast cancer surgery annually. ...),Health

Background Information

Approximately 1.2 million women in the United States have a breast biopsy performed each year. Of those, approximately 200,000 will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Axillary lymph node status is one of the most important prognostic factors for women diagnosed with the disease and impacts the choice of post surgical therapy. Surgery to remove all axillary lymph nodes for examination by the pathologist (axillary lymph node dissection or ALND) remains an integral and potentially curative component of breast cancer care. However, it is a serious procedure associated with the risk of unwanted side effects including lymphedema, restriction of arm movement and nerve complications. Until recently, most women underwent an ALND unnecessarily. (2)

About Veridex

Veridex, LLC, a Johnson & Johnson company, develops cancer diagnostic products that will enable earlier disease detection as well as more accurate staging, monitoring and therapeutic selection. The company is initially developing two complementary product lines: CellSearch(TM) assays that identify, enumerate and characterize circulating tumor cells directly from whole blood; and GeneSearch(TM) assays that use molecular technology to diagnose, stage and more accurately characterize tumors. http://www.veridex.com

For free broadcast-standard video related to this release, please log onto http://www.thenewsmarket.com/jnj. Video with quotes from physicians and a breast cancer patient are available, along with computer animation of how the GeneSearch test works. Registration and video is free to the media

(1) Each year, 52,000 breast cancer patients will have cancer in their lymph nodes. Using the GeneSearch(TM) BLN Assay, with a 95 percent accuracy rating, an estimated 49,400 patients could be identi
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