Here is the latest American Chemical Society (ACS) News Service Weekly press package (PressPac) with reports selected from 34 major peer-reviewed journals and Chemical & Engineering News.

In This Edition:

• Toward an ultra-sensitive blood test for breast cancer
• A positive report on NoMix toilets
• Boosting the heart-health nutraceutical content of grapes
• Speeding the search for potential Alzheimer's disease drugs
• Beyond Herceptin: Toward a potential new generation of better cancer drugs
• Journalists' Helper of the Week: Science, September and San Francisco
• Mark Your Calendars Chemistry 2006San Francisco

ARTICLE #1 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Toward an ultra-sensitive blood test for breast cancer
Journal of Proteome Research

An international research group is reporting development and early clinical testing of an ultra-sensitive blood test for breast cancer. Their new immunoassay was 200-1,000 times more sensitive than existing tests, according to a report scheduled for the Aug. 4 issue of the ACS' Journal of Proteome Research.

Jasminka Godovac-Zimmermann, of University College London, headed the group, which included scientists from the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh and BioTraces, Inc. in Herndon, Va.

Tests on 250 breast cancer patients and 95 controls showed that the test had sensitivity and specificity of about 95 percent -- an important consideration in determining the false-positive and false-negative results of a diagnostic test. Breast cancer originates in so-called epithelial cells, and the researchers cited pilot studies suggesting that the test could work for epithelial cancers. Those include prostate cancer, ovarian cancer and melanoma.

In their report, the researchers cite a need for a more effective way of screening for breast cancer -- especially in younger women
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Contact: Michael Bernstein
m_bernstein@acs.org
202-872-4400
American Chemical Society
7-Aug-2006