ALBUQUERQUE--(Business Wire)--
Medical diagnostics company Biomoda, Inc. (OTCBB: BMOD) today thanked New Mexico
Governor Bill Richardson for joining the fight against lung cancer by
proclaiming November as Lung Cancer Awareness Month throughout New Mexico.
"It`s particularly appropriate to acknowledge Gov. Richardson on Veterans Day
because his administration and the New Mexico Legislature have been proactive
and forward-thinking in their support for our landmark screening program to
detect early-stage lung cancer in New Mexico veterans," Biomoda President John
Cousins said today. "We know that veterans have a 25 percent higher risk of lung
cancer than the general population due to greater exposure to known carcinogens,
such as Agent Orange and asbestos, and higher smoking rates."
Funded by the Legislature from the state`s tobacco settlement funds and
administered by the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services and the New
Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, the veterans screening program is the
first large-scale study of Biomoda`s CyPath investigational use (not yet
FDA-approved) diagnostic, which is based on a patented molecular marker that
binds to cancer cells and fluoresces red under ultraviolet light. Biomoda
recruited approximately 500 at-risk veterans for the clinical trial, and results
are expected by the end of January 2010.
Study volunteers provide deep-lung sputum samples to be screened for cancer with
Pap stain analysis performed by cytopathologists at the VA Medical Center in
Denver, and CT scans read by independent radiologists under the International
Early Lung Cancer Action Program (I-ELCAP) Enrollment and Screening Protocol.
Results determined on the sputum samples with the investigational CyPath assay
in the Biomoda lab are then compared to these diagnostic results. Such results
will be utilized by Biomoda to help plan a large clinical study that will lead
to FDA approval of the CyPath assay.
In the proclamation issued Nov. 9, Richardson cited estimates that more New
Mexicans will die from lung cancer each year than from other cancers that
receive substantially more funding for research and early detection. Richardson
acknowledged the Lung Cancer Alliance, a national non-profit organization, for
its patient support and advocacy work for people living with lung cancer or at
risk for the disease.
Cousins said the Lung Cancer Alliance`s support for early detection has focused
attention on the need for FDA approval of Biomoda`s diagnostic. "We are
appreciative of the Lung Cancer Alliance`s efforts at the national, state and
local levels to raise awareness and increase funding for research," Cousins
said. "Screening studies like this will provide much-needed data on risk
assessment, improved survivability and the importance of early diagnosis."
Based in Albuquerque, N.M., Biomoda (www.biomoda.com) is a cancer diagnostics
company focused on the development and FDA approval of accurate, inexpensive and
noninvasive in-vitro tests for the early detection of cancer in large
populations.
Biomoda, Inc., Albuquerque
John Cousins, 505-821-0875
Copyright Business Wire 2009
