OncoMethylome Sciences Collaborators Identify Methylation Markers that are Associated with Lung Cancer Recurrence

03-14-2008: OncoMethylome Sciences announced that its research collaborators demonstrated that gene methylation is significantly associated with recurrence of early stage non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute successfully identified genes whose methylation is associated with tumor recurrence - independently of cancer stage, histologic characteristics of the tumor and demographic variables such as age, sex, race and smoking history. The results of the study, which was sponsored by OncoMethylome Sciences, were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in an article titled DNA Methylation Markers and Early Recurrence of Stage I Lung Cancer. Under the terms of an existing research collaboration agreement between OncoMethylome and JHU, OncoMethylome has an option to license the methylation marker assay.