Provista’s “BT Test”: A Blood Test to Detect Early Breast Cancer?

Last week’s Women’s Health Newsflash: Breast Cancer - April 9, 2008 garnered this interesting comment:

It is rare to find so much breast health information in one source, and clearly you have a large following. If you have time, can you please review information on my client’s new blood test for breast cancer - the BT Test - on the Web site, provistals.com?

We are working on it here in Arizona first and then expect to roll it out nationally this year. As someone who closely follows the latest news in breast cancer research and treatment, I would welcome any comments or feedback you may have about the test and its implications for women. For transparency, my team and I work on the public relations efforts for Provista.

I checked out the website provided by the commenter and found an overview from manufacturer Provista Life Sciences.

The BT Test is designed to complement other testing methods to aid doctors in more accurately diagnosing breast cancer in its early stages, when life-saving treatment is most effective.

Created to work in conjunction with annual mammograms and other trusted breast cancer detection methods, the BT Test is an innovative blood test that ensures patients receive the most thorough diagnosis possible.

Following the link to BT Test Research yields some useful clinical and medical information that sheds a little light on how the test actually works. Essentially, the BT Test measures the levels of breast cancer-associated biomarkers (or proteins). A clinical study conducted by Provista that enrolled 430 women indicated a receiver operating characteric (ROC) accuracy upwards of 80%. Additional research is forthcoming.

The idea of another option for a noninvasive breast cancer test is very appealing, but it’s too soon to put our eggs in the BT Test basket, if you ask me. That doesn’t mean it can’t be a valuable complement to existing methods, though, and that’s exactly what the material I’ve found so far suggests — which I find very reassuring as a generally skeptical consumer.

Both the comment above and the Provista website indicate that the BT Test is being rolled out in Arizona in 2008 for further evaluation, including at these Phoenix-area providers. Let’s keep an eye on this one and see where it goes.

I have a call in to Provista’s director of clinical studies to see if I can get some more details on the findings thus far and when we can expect more news. I will update when I hear back.

(photo via SXC.hu)

Contents © Copyright 2008 Kristen King

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