Rosetta Genomics, Ltd. (NASDAQ: ROSG), a leading developer and provider
of microRNA-based molecular diagnostics, announced today that the
results of a joint study with the NYU Langone Medical Center were
published online on February 16th, 2010, and are set to be
published in the March 1st issue of the American Association
for Cancer Research’s journal, Cancer Research. The study,
“Hsa-Mir-29c* is Linked to the Prognosis of Malignant Pleural
Mesothelioma,” demonstrates the potential of a single microRNA to act as
an independent prognostic factor for time to progression as well as
survival after surgery. The abstract of the study may be viewed online
at: http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/0008-5472.CAN-09-3993v1
“This is an exciting discovery which may have significant clinical
impact on the treatment of MPM”
In the study, 142 MPM tumors were analyzed for microRNA expression
levels using Rosetta Genomics’ proprietary microRNA-based array and
qRT-PCR technologies. The results clearly demonstrate that higher levels
of miR-29c* in MPM predict a more favorable prognosis. Not only was the
microRNA able to separate MPM patients by time to progression after
surgery, but it also stratified these patients by their survival.
When examining Time to Progression (TTP) of MPM, the expression level of
miR-29c* enabled the identification of two groups with significantly
different median TTP: 4 months versus 14 months in the study’s training
set, and 5.5 months versus 12.8 months in the study’s test set.
When examining survival rates for MPM, the expression level of miR-29c*
enabled the identification of two groups as well: median survival of 8
months versus 32 months in the study’s training set, and median survival
of 9.1 months versus 21.6 months in the study’s test set. This new
diagnostic capability may help physicians apply more aggressive
therapeutic modalities to the poor prognosis group.
Furthermore, the study found that over-expression of miR-29c* in
mesothelioma cell lines resulted in significantly decreased
proliferation, migration, invasion and colony formation.