BioImagene announced that the company is advancing its goal of bridging personalized medicine and the clinical practice of pathology by providing Companion Algorithms. These specialized algorithms, which BioImagene develops for use with its Virtuoso suite of web-based software, aid pathologists in the quantitative assessment of specialized diagnostic tests used to determine patient suitability for specific cancer therapies. As pharmaceutical companies work to develop companion diagnostics to individualize therapy for cancer patients, Companion Algorithms further enable pathologists to correctly identify and accurately measure specific biomarkers used to determine appropriate treatment options for patients.

“Companion diagnostics will play an increasing role in cancer care as physicians strive to provide the therapies that are most likely to be advantageous to individual patients,” said Keith J. Kaplan, M.D., Mayo Clinic. “Companion Algorithms bring personalized medicine one step closer to reality and can help the pathologist provide the most actionable information to the oncologist.”

Ajit Singh, Ph.D., chief executive officer of BioImagene, commented: “The Human Genome Project opened the doors to research in the field of biomarkers and cancer diagnostics; however, challenges still exist in using biomarkers to identify subpopulations of patients that are likely to respond favorably to targeted treatments. Providing pathologists with Companion Algorithms will ultimately move our industry closer to the goal of personalized medicine.”

“The Herceptest, the first FDA-approved companion diagnostic, is used to identify the subset of breast cancer patients who over-express the HER2/neu protein and will therefore have a high probability of responding to Herceptin,” said Robert Monroe, M.D., Ph.D., chief medical officer of BioImagene. “BioImagene’s FDA-cleared HER2/neu Companion Algorithm improves the accuracy and reproducibility of Herceptest interpretation. BioImagene offers additional Companion Algorithms for breast cancer and is committed to developing new Companion Algorithms for other companion diagnostic tests used in prostate, colon, lung and other cancers.”