Projects

As the most common malignant disease in women, breast cancer is of particular importance, with 69,200 new cases per year in Germany. In the course of her life, one in eight women will develop breast cancer. Particularly noteworthy is the large number of younger women, because three out of ten affected are younger than 55 years. With 17,000 deaths per year, breast cancer represents the most common cause of death among cancers. Non-invasive biomarkers have high potential as a tool of novel clinical diagnostic tools in breast cancer detection. Biomarkers such as microRNAs can be obtained from a native urine sample and relatively quantified. Breast cancer can be indicated via characteristic changes in their expression profile. Using this method, the novel breast cancer diagnostic test "Mammacheck" detects breast cancer independently of age and with the highest informative value. The aim of the project is to transfer a micro-RNA (miRNA) based test Mammacheck from clinical research into a commercializable product for non-invasive breast cancer diagnostics. It is intended to bridge the gap between the discovery phase and a commercial exploitation of the Mammacheck test. Part of the planned work therefore consists of validating the test procedure on a larger patient population of approx. 1500 subjects in the context of a clinical diagnostic study. Another part of the work is dedicated to the automation of the diagnostic procedure. The aim is to establish an automated analysis in centers for laboratory medicine. For a better market entry of an exploitation following the project work on standardization, quality assurance and certification is planned.