High Sensitivity of Biocept's Target Selector Blood-Based Liquid Biopsy Tests Featured in Two Abstracts at ASCO

SAN DIEGO, May 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Biocept, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIOC), a molecular diagnostics company commercializing and developing liquid biopsies to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, announces that study data building additional support for the clinical utility of its Target Selector™ liquid biopsy offerings is being featured in two abstracts at the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Meeting being held June 3-7 in Chicago.

Biocept offers sensitive and quantitative blood-based methods for the detection and monitoring of clinically actionable cancer biomarkers in both circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in order to provide information to physicians based on the status of biomarkers gained from the tumor material. Biocept is engaged in multiple ongoing clinical studies designed to further demonstrate the utility of its liquid biopsy diagnostic assays to profile and monitor a patient's cancer and biomarker status to assess treatment response over time.

• The first abstract, "The performance of a comprehensive CTC anti-body capture cocktail in the detection and phenotypic analysis of CTCs," provides further clinical validation of Biocept's proprietary technology to detect a wide range of CTCs including both epithelial (tissues that line the cavities and surfaces of blood vessels and organs) and non-epithelial, as well as those undergoing epithelial mesenchymal transformation (EMT).  Compared to traditional methods of CTC isolation and detection, Biocept's multiplexed antibody cocktail method improves the capture and characterization of a broader range of CTC phenotypes resulting in a more thorough screen for predictive and prognostic tumor markers, thereby enabling an informed treatment strategy.
• The second abstract, "ctDNA assay to detect EGFR mutations and mechanisms of resistance to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors," provides additional support for the high level of sensitivity and high level of concordance ( &#62 80%) of Biocept's ctDNA assay compared to tissue results.  The data cited in the abstract are from a study being conducted with Lyudmila Bazhenova, MD, at the University of California San Diego.

"These study data further support the use of our Target Selector blood-based tests for sensitive real-time monitoring and potential early identification of biomarkers that could be beneficial in assessing disease progression and treatment response," stated Veena Singh, MD, Senior Vice President and Medical Director at Biocept.  "We are delighted to have these abstracts accepted for this year's ASCO conference.

"The data from Dr. Bazhenova's ongoing study also highlights the ability of our platform to monitor clinical response as well as progression of biomarker status after therapy," added Dr. Singh.  "This important feature of the Biocept platform could provide clinicians with a method to perform serial, blood-based monitoring on patients focused on clearly defined clinically actionable biomarkers."

About Biocept

Biocept, Inc. is a molecular diagnostics company with commercialized tests targeting lung, breast, gastric, colorectal and prostate cancers and melanoma.  The company uses its proprietary liquid biopsy technology to provide physicians with more precise information for treating, monitoring and profiling patients with cancer.  The company's patented Target Selector liquid biopsy technology platform captures and analyzes circulating tumor material in both CTCs and ctDNA.  The platform has demonstrated the ability to identify cancer mutations.  Biocept plans to introduce additional CLIA-validated tests in the near term.  For additional information, please visit www.biocept.com.

Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer Statement

This release contains forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements and the assumptions upon which they are based are reasonable, we can give no assurance that such expectations and assumptions will prove to have been correct. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of words like "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "intend," or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. To the extent that statements in this release are not strictly historical, including without limitation statements as to our ability to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, our ability to build additional support for the clinical utility of our liquid biopsy offerings, our ability to demonstrate the utility of our liquid biopsy diagnostic assays to profile and monitor a patient's cancer and biomarker status to assess treatment response over time, the ability of our tests to be beneficial in assessing disease progression and treatment response, our impact on diagnostic strategies and planned future offerings, such statements are forward-looking, and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as these statements are subject to numerous risk factors as set forth in our Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. The effects of such risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this release. We do not plan to update any such forward-looking statements and expressly disclaim any duty to update the information contained in this press release except as required by law. Readers are advised to review our filings with the SEC, which can be accessed over the Internet at the SEC's website located at www.sec.gov.

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