Majority of Women Do Not Discuss Breast Cancer Risks with Healthcare Provider
Cambridge, Mass. – May 5, 2015 sphingotec, LLC, a developer of predictive diagnostic tests for cancer, cardiovascular diseases and kidney function, today announced the results of a survey gauging women’s understanding of breast cancer risk factors and their perceptions of common breast cancer screening methods.
The survey was conducted in conjunction with a national, independent health information resource for women, and found that of the 464 anonymous respondents, the majority of women do not discuss breast cancer risk factors or the guidelines and limitations of mammography screenings with their healthcare providers.
“Mammograms remain an important screening tool and can save lives by helping detect some cases of breast cancer early, however women are not aware of the limitations of mammography, nor are they aware of their personal risk factors leading to breast cancer, according to the survey,” said Karla Gonye, president, sphingotec, LLC. “The results of the survey give us insight into the market need for breast cancer biomarkers beyond BRCA 1/2 and further indicate the desire for more risk predictive tests so that women and their doctors can make more informed decisions about their risk of breast cancer.”
The top findings from the survey include:
Overwhelmingly, women want to know more about their personal risk for breast cancer, but rarely or never discuss their risk factors with a healthcare provider.
Nearly all women (99 percent) expressed interest in understanding their personal risk for breast cancer.
However, 65 percent rarely or never discuss their breast cancer risk factors with a healthcare provider, a concerning statistic given that breast cancer is the most common cancer among women.
Those surveyed identified family history (94 percent), use of hormone replacement therapy (73 percent), smoking (64 percent) and age (58 percent) as the top risk factors for breast cancer.
Despite conflicting recommendations around the frequency of mammogram screening and growing evidence that annual screenings can lead to added expense and anxiety due to false-positive results, the majority of women still get annual mammograms.
Sixty-four percent of women get a mammogram once a year.
Nineteen percent get a mammogram every two to three years.
Given that mammograms miss one in five occurrences of breast cancer1, mammography screenings need to be complemented with new and more affordable prognostic tools for assessing and predicting breast cancer risk.
Upon receiving a normal mammogram result, more than half of women (55 percent) believed that they were cancer free, but only 45 percent were aware of the limitations of mammograms in the early detection of breast cancer.
Ninety-six percent of women indicated they want a simple and affordable blood test to determine breast cancer risk.
1National Cancer Institute, https://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/breast/mammograms-fact-sheet
Survey Methodology
This independent survey was conducted online through SurveyMonkey on behalf of sphingotec from April 20 – 23, 2015 among 464 anonymous women living in the United States. Ninety percent of the women surveyed were over the age of 40 and 10 percent were between 20 – 39 years old.
About sphingotec
The biotechnology company SphingoTec GmbH, headquartered in Hennigsdorf, Germany with U.S. operations in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was founded in 2002. sphingotec develops diagnostic methods for prediction, prevention, intervention strategies and early treatment of diseases in the fields of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and kidney function. Using biomarkers to indicate susceptibility for a specific disease provides individuals with knowledge that they are at risk. The biomarkers therefore create a starting point where intervention strategies can be employed, as evidence-based recommendations on how to reduce risks are always an integral part of the complete concept. The company’s sphingotest pro-NT and sphingotest pro-ENK tests take a unique approach to breast cancer prediction that is unlike any other risk assessment test currently available. The tests identify the concentration of the peptides neurotensin (NT) and enkaphalin (ENK) in the blood, which can then determine individual risk levels. Further information can be found on our website www.sphingotec.com.
A new peer-reviewed study in Physiological Reports is the first to evaluate Proenkephalin A 119-159 (penKid) for kidney functional reserve (KFR) assessment, a stress test designed to reveal loss of kidney capacity that may not be apparent from routine blood tests. Within that method, penKid stood out: its dynamic had a far wider range after a protein stimulus than cystatin C (44.2% vs. 10.5% median fractional change) while reaching its maximal response within approx. two hours after protein stimulation. The results extend the published evidence for penKid beyond acute kidney injury into a potential complementary application: assessing kidney functional reserve. Hennigsdorf, Germany – October 6, 2026 – penKid has been evaluated for the first time as a marker of kidney functional reserve (KFR): a new study in Physiological Reports (1) found that its response spanned a much wider range than cystatin C and creatinine clearance after a protein stimulus. The study in 62 participants marks the first published evaluation of penKid for this use. Clinical context and unmet need Kidney function may appear normal on a standard blood test until a large portion of capacity has already gone. Kidney functional reserve testing addresses this gap by measuring how much a kidney's filtration rate can still rise in response to a stimulus, most commonly a protein meal. Once that reserve narrows, the kidney has less room to compensate for future stress such as major surgeries. The study authors note that reserve testing is rarely used in clinical practice, largely because the reference method used, creatinine clearance, is cumbersome, requiring blood and urine collection, can be difficult to perform outside specialized settings, and is affected by processes in the kidney unrelated to filtration itself. Study design and key findings Researchers at the University of New South Wales and Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney conducted the study in 62 participants: 40 patients having heart surgery, and 22 healthy people, including volunteers, kidney donors, and patients who had a kidney auto-transplant. Participants drank a protein shake, followed by hourly collection of blood samples over a five hour-period. Urine samples were also collected for creatinine clearance testing. After a high protein intake, kidney filtration increases for a few hours: this "extra work" is what the methods were designed to measure. PenKid showed the largest dynamic response, with a median fractional increase of 44% from baseline compared with 30% for creatinine clearance and only about 10% for cystatin C. Unlike creatinine clearance, penKid differentiated healthy participants from cardiac surgery patients, who had a lower KFR. The study also found penKid measurements to be more homogeneous than creatinine clearance measurements, indicating greater consistency across assessments. PenKid was also fast, reaching its peak functional response in about two hours, similar in timing to a two-hour diabetes test (oral glucose tolerance test). Implications for clinical practice Beyond its wider dynamic range, the authors highlight practical advantages specific to penKid-based functional reserve testing: no urine collection is needed, minimal fasting is required, and penKid enables near real-time assessment of kidney functional reserve from blood samples alone. These features suggest penKid may offer a fast and simple alternative to assess how much reserve an individual patient has. "PenKid gave us a fast, consistent read on how much filtration capacity a kidney still has in reserve," said Prof. Zoltan H. Endre, corresponding author of the study, Department of Nephrology, Prince of Wales Hospital, and School of Clinical Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney. "A signal that's clear, captured that quickly, turns a kidney stress test from a research tool into something a clinic could actually use." About penKid, scientific insights PenKid is a biomarker for real-time assessment of kidney function. Unlike creatinine, penKid levels are not influenced by inflammation or factors such as age or sex, and prior studies show penKid can detect acute kidney injury (AKI) up to 48 hours before conventional criteria are met (2,3). The new Physiological Reports study provides data for another, complementary application: measuring kidney functional reserve to identify subclinical kidney disease. About SphingoTec SphingoTec GmbH ("SphingoTec"; Hennigsdorf near Berlin, Germany) is a biomarker company focusing on the out-licensing of innovative critical care solutions for diagnosing, predicting, and monitoring acute medical conditions. SphingoTec develops its biomarkers to the commercial stage and partners with IVD companies to make them available on different IVD platforms. SphingoTec's proprietary biomarker portfolio includes Proenkephalin A 119-159 (penKid), a biomarker for the assessment of kidney function in critical diseases, and bioactive Adrenomedullin 1-52 (bio-ADM), a biomarker for the assessment of endothelial function in conditions like acute heart failure. Discover more on www.sphingotec.com References (1) Rodrigues, C. E. et. al. (2026). Plasma proenkephalin-a facilitates measurement of human kidney functional reserve: From healthy kidney donors to polymorbid patients. Physiological Reports, 14, e71083. https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.71083 . (2) Caironi P, et al. (2018) Circulating Proenkephalin, Acute Kidney Injury, and Its Improvement in Patients with Severe Sepsis or Shock.; https://doi.org/10.1373/clinchem.2018.288068 (3) Rosenqvist M, et. al. (2019) Proenkephalin a 119-159 (penKid) - a novel biomarker for acute kidney injury in sepsis: an observational study. BMC Emerg Med, doi: 10.1186/s12873-019-0283-9. Media Contact: Email: press@sphingotec.com Phone +49-3302-20565-0 SphingoTec GmbH Neuendorfstr. 15A 16761 Hennigsdorf, Germany
In a prospective, real-world study of 1,436 critically ill ICU patients, proenkephalin A 119–159 (penKid) provided clinically relevant information across AKI severity and during kidney replacement therapy (KRT). PenKid addressed a key unmet need in KRT management by identifying, with greater precision than standard biomarkers, patients at high risk of KRT liberation failure – helping to avoid stopping therapy too early. The findings support a future role for penKid in helping to standardize one of the few intensive care processes where the need for better decision support is widely acknowledged and current tools remain insufficient. Hennigsdorf, Germany – August 27, 2026 – SphingoTec GmbH announces the publication of new real-world data on proenkephalin A 119–159 (penKid) in critically ill patients. The data, published in Annals of Intensive Care, add to the growing body of evidence supporting penKid as a functional biomarker for kidney function and help inform clinical decision-making in AKI and KRT (1). In a prospective observational study at Heidelberg University Hospital, penKid was measured in 1,436 critically ill patients, including 138 patients receiving KRT for liberation analyses. The findings showed that penKid rose with AKI severity and, unlike serum creatinine and urine output, distinguished stage 3 AKI patients with and without an acute KRT requirement. In contrast to serum creatinine, penKid also differentiated acute KRT patients from those with pre-existing kidney failure and on chronic hemodialysis prior ICU admission, even while KRT treatment was ongoing (1). The study further showed that penKid levels increased progressively from the start of KRT, while serum creatinine decreased under treatment. Following successful liberation from KRT, penKid declined, whereas higher levels were seen in cases of liberation failure. In multivariable analysis, penKid was the strongest independent predictor of liberation failure and outperformed serum creatinine. A penKid cut-off of ≥250 pmol/L provided more than 90% specificity for liberation failure (1). By identifying patients at high risk of unsuccessful liberation, penKid may help clinicians make KRT discontinuation decisions more objectively, reduce the risk of stopping therapy too early, and support more standardized decision-making across critical care settings. “These data are important because they address a real-world clinical problem: how to better assess kidney function and support KRT decisions when standard markers fall short,” said Deborah Bergmann, CEO of SphingoTec. “penKid provides clinicians with an objective, real-time measurable parameter that may help support more informed and consistent kidney-related decisions in critical care.” Christian Nusshag, MD, Department of Nephrology, Heidelberg University Hospital, said: “Current markers often leave clinicians with an incomplete picture. Our findings suggest that penKid may help standardize decision-making by providing additional, actionable information on kidney integrity and recovery.” About penKid, scientific insights PenKid is a biomarker that enables real-time assessment of kidney function. Unlike conventional markers such as serum creatinine, penKid levels are not influenced by inflammation or other confounding factors like age or sex. Studies have shown that penKid allows earlier detection of AKI, predicting changes in serum creatinine up to 48 hours before conventional diagnostic criteria are met. This early detection capability is particularly valuable in critically ill patients, including those with sepsis or septic shock. Additionally, penKid has shown potential for monitoring renal recovery under KRT and could help predict successful liberation from KRT. About SphingoTec SphingoTec GmbH ("SphingoTec"; Hennigsdorf near Berlin, Germany) is a biomarker company focusing on the out-licensing of innovative critical care solutions for diagnosing, predicting, and monitoring acute medical conditions. SphingoTec develops its biomarkers to the commercial stage and partners with IVD companies to make them available on different IVD platforms. SphingoTec's proprietary biomarker portfolio includes Proenkephalin A 119-159 (penKid), a biomarker for the assessment of kidney function in critical diseases, and bioactive Adrenomedullin 1-52 (bio-ADM), a biomarker for the assessment of endothelial function in conditions like acute heart failure. Discover more on www.sphingotec.com References (1) Gabriel DC, Sauer P, Happel R, et al. Proenkephalin A for Assessing Kidney Integrity and Guiding KRT Liberation Decisions in Critically Ill Patients. Annals of Intensive Care. 2026. DOI: 10.1016/j.aicoj.2026.100113. Media Contact: Email: press@sphingotec.com Phone +49-3302-20565-0 SphingoTec GmbH Neuendorfstr. 15A 16761 Hennigsdorf, Germany