Clinical analysis of the novel breast cancer serum assay BT1

In an effort to define possible clinical relationships to the BT1 serum ass ay, a retrospective study population including both Caucasian and African A merican breast cancer patients was tested. Test results were compared to cl inical information provided by the Virginia Cancer Registry. The 64 patient s, ages 29 through 69, had a wide range of BT1 values which were not attrib utable to race or age. The majority of these patients had infiltrating duct carcinoma, with eight additional morphology of neoplasm diagnoses represen ted in the entire group. No morphology code was associated with either a re active or non-reactive BT1 result. Staging information was available for 26 patients, diagnosed with stages I, II, and III breast cancer. Positive BT1 values were found throughout these diagnosis stages. In addition, multiple serum samples were available from some patients. Analysis of these longitu dinal samples showed different patterns, wi th test values remaining unreac tive in 4 patients, and reactive in 9 others. Interestingly, 5 patients sho wed values increasing from negative to positive while 3 patients went from positive to negative over time.