About Cancer

The Medical Need
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the US. According to a report of the American Cancer Society (Facts and Figures report, 2008), diagnosis of 1,437,180 new cases of cancer was expected in 2008 in the US alone, with expected mortality reaching 565,650 deaths; more than 1,500 deaths per day.

The NIH estimates that the cost of cancer in the year 2007 was $78 billion on direct medical costs alone, not including indirect morbidity costs (lost productivity due to illness) and indirect mortality costs.

Bladder cancer, BioCancell Therapeutics’ first indication, has an incidence of 68,810 new cases per year in the US, with mortality of 14,100 deaths (natural 5-year recurrence rate of 70%-80%). Current treatments constitute severe adverse events that lead to incomplete and therefore sub-optimal treatment. Some $1.9 billion is spent in the US on treatment of bladder cancer annually.

There is a clear unmet medical need for a highly targeted, safe cancer treatment.

Patient-Oriented, Targeted Therapy can be used for treatment of all types of cancer that demonstrate high expression of the H19 gene in humans. This includes:

Cancer Type	Incidence, USA 2008 Estimated	Deaths, USA 2008 Estimated
Bladder	68,810	14,100
Liver	21,370	18,410
Pancreatic	37,680	34,290
Breast	184,450	40,930
Lung	215,020	161,840
Ovarian	21,650	15,520
Colon	108,070	49,960
Melanoma	62,480	8,420

As a safe and effective therapeutic and long-term preventative treatment, combined with its suitability for a large variety of cancers, BioCancell's Patient-Oriented, Targeted Therapy products are positioned to be potential blockbusters.