By: Staff Reporter
From: genomeweb.com
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center said today that New York state has approved the center’s liquid biopsy test for noninvasive cancer genomic profiling and disease monitoring.
The test, called Analysis of Circulating cfDNA to Evaluate Somatic Access (MSK-ACCESS), has been clinically validated and implemented by MSK’s molecular diagnostics service. It sequences 129 cancer-associated genes selected from the MSK-IMPACT solid tumor genomic profiling assay and is designed to detect gene alterations in cfDNA specimen, including blood and other body fluids.
“MSK-ACCESS could potentially be used for patients whose tumor tissue isn’t available or is difficult to biopsy, or if MSK-IMPACT on a tumor biopsy fails to produce informative results because too few tumor cells were in the biopsy, which primarily happens in people with advanced metastatic cancer,” Michael Berger, associate director of the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Molecular Oncology, said in a statement.
“The MSK-ACCESS liquid biopsy test will complement our FDA-cleared MSK-IMPACT tumor-profiling test,” added Marc Ladanyi, chief of MSK’s molecular diagnostics service. “This will further enhance the way we match patients at MSK to the targeted therapies most likely to benefit them.”
Barbara Jacoby is an award winning blogger that has contributed her writings to multiple online publications that have touched readers worldwide.