MetaStat, Inc. announced that a 500 patient trial in breast cancer has been completed. The trial was completed on time and on budget in line with the expectations. Currently available genome-wide studies attempt to provide prognostic information on the probability of cancer recurrence.

However, these studies are less than optimal in predicting metastatic outcome because they genetically profile whole tumor tissue without respect to the fact that only a small subpopulation of metastatic cells inside the primary tumor is responsible for escaping and initiating dissemination and metastasis. When whole tumor tissue is used for genetic profiling, the expression pattern of these metastatic cells is masked by the presence of a vast majority of noninvasive tumor cells and undefined stromal cells. Therefore, little information is available about the crucial early steps of metastasis.