Cancer Cell Proliferation
Cancer is defined by uncontrolled cell growth
In a proliferating cancer cell, Thymidine Kinase is continuously expressed and released into the bloodstream.
While Ki67 is a well known proliferation biomarker, it has certain limitations (requires tissue acquired by biopsy, heterogenous expression, etc.). It is typically used only at baseline to characterize a tumor before treatment and is not used for monitoring.
The blood-based DiviTum® TKa test (the name evokes “Dividing Tumor”) does not require a tissue biopsy, can be tested repeatedly during therapy, and can be used as a monitoring tool. DiviTum can quantify the level of thymidine kinase released into the circulation from proliferating cells. This generates a DiviTum activity score which can offer important insights about the proliferative status of a patient’s disease.
DiviTum® TKa test is FDA 510(k) cleared in the US and CE marked in the EU
The DiviTum TKa test can detect an increase or decrease of Thymidine Kinase activity (TKa) levels in the blood. This information can be used as an aid in monitoring disease progression.
Ki-67 is a well-known proliferation (but not monitoring) biomarker, which has certain limitations (requires a biopsy, heterogenous expression).
Conventional biomarkers—such as cancer antigen 15-3 (CA 15-3)—are not expressed in all women with mBC1
Low sensitivity of current imaging techniques: up to 40% of mBC patients have non-measurable disease2