December 17, 2007 – Veridex LLC, a Johnson & Johnson company, announced that TIME magazine has named the GeneSearch Breast Lymph Node (BLN) Assay one of the top ten medical breakthroughs of 2007.
In the Dec. 24 issue of the magazine TIME states, “Surgeons now have a faster way to assess whether breast cancer has spread.” With GeneSearch BLN Assay, “doctors can accurately test the sentinel node for metastases during the initial surgery by measuring molecular markers of breast cancer. If the test shows the presence of cancer, the physician can remove affected lymph nodes immediately, sparing women the wait and possible follow-up surgery.”
GeneSearch BLN is the first intra-operative and gene-based test approved for use in the U.S. to detect the spread of breast cancer into the lymph nodes. The assay can detect the spread of cancer into the lymph nodes more accurately than existing rapid methodologies and, as a result, has the potential to reduce the need for stressful and costly second surgeries for breast cancer patients.
The GeneSearch BLN Assay is the first in vitro diagnostic test approved in the U.S. for the rapid detection of metastases greater than 0.2 mm in sentinel lymph node tissue removed from breast cancer patients. In clinical trials with more than 300 patients in the U.S. that compared performance of GeneSearch with commonly performed intra-operative test procedures, GeneSearch correctly identified 95.6 percent of patients who had metastases in their lymph nodes. This high accuracy in finding metastases was statistically superior to the most commonly performed intra-operative test procedure. The new, gene-based technology of the GeneSearch allows for the analysis of 50 percent of the sentinel node, versus five percent of tissue typically examined under a microscope for evidence of cancer cells. Test results from GeneSearch can be produced in 35 to 40 minutes during the initial surgical procedure versus two to three days with tissue pathology.
For more information: www.veridex.com
September 07, 2023 
