Becton,Dickinson and company,BD and UCL business announced an agreement for improving the early detection system for breast cancers and ovarian cancers so that early and effective treatment can be provided to the patients.

Breast cancer and ovarian cancer are the two most deadly cancers for women in which breast cancer is the second main cause of women death by cancer. Breast cancer is also a common cancer in women. According to most recent 2007 statistics of American Cancer Society, around 1.3 million new cases were expected to be diagnosed every year worldwide of breast cancer. It is also projected in this statistics that around 465,000 women may die with this cancer per year.

Around 204,000 cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed annually worldwide and it is estimated that 125,000 women may die annually with this cancer. In United States and United Kingdom, ovarian cancer becomes fifth and fourth major death causing dieses in women, respectively.

This venture gives exclusive access to UCL’s “biobank” which contains more than 200,000 patient samples collected by prospective screening clinical trials for detection of breast and ovarian cancer. BD will use these samples to develop new biomarker assays.

“This agreement demonstrates how UCL and the Institute for Women’s Health have become an international center of excellence for research, clinical care and training in the areas of women’s health and cancer,  We are delighted by our collaboration with BD and proud that our track record of excellence in cancer research, including laboratory science and major studies, such as the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS), will aid in the research and development of new, more powerful diagnostics for ovarian and breast cancer.” said Professor Ian Jacobs, Dean of the UCL Faculty of Biomedical Science.

“The key to defeating ovarian and breast cancers is detecting the diseases early and managing them effectively.  This hinges on diagnostic tests that provide clinicians with timely and accurate information,” said Wayne Brinster, Vice President and General Manager, Women’s Health and Cancer, BD Diagnostics. “To develop new tests, you need to first validate them against a robust set of samples that very few institutions possess to assure the test is performing as planned.  The ability to access UCL’s samples and work with its leading researchers represents a major step toward BD’s goal of developing and commercializing tests that significantly improve the detection and management of these deadly cancers. Our goal for this collaboration with BD is to enable a number of diagnostics to be developed sooner that benefit many who currently suffer from these life-threatening conditions,” said Cengiz Tarhan, Managing Director of UCLB.