By Ron Shinkman, Editor, Laboratory Industry Report
New Jersey-based Rosetta Genomics has received a patent for its kidney cancer assay, the company announced this week.
Rosetta received a patent for its gene expression test, which can identify four types of kidney cancer: oncocytoma, clear cell renal cell carcinoma, papillary renal cell carcinoma and chromophobe renal cell carcinoma. The assay is performed by identifying micro-RNA in the patient’s blood or other tissue. Rosetta received a patent on the expression profiling of 24 sets of micro-RNA and an algorithm that is used to classify the results. It is jointly owned with Tel Hashomer Medical Research Ltd., which oversees technology transfers from Chaim Sheba Medical Center in Israel.
“We believe that the different long-term prognosis for these four subtypes makes the correct pathological diagnosis of a renal cancer critically important for the clinician, especially for oncocytomas so as to avoid unnecessary surgeries,” said Kenneth Berlin, Rosetta’s chief executive officer in a statement.
The traditional way to diagnose kidney cancer in the past has been through a partial nephrectomy, an involved surgical procedure. Academic studies suggest that nearly 17 percent of patients who undergo nephrectomies are told they have a benign disease. The economic impact of performing such a surgery is about $26,500 per patient.
“In addition to reducing the number of unnecessary surgeries in the case of oncocytomas, new molecularly-targeted therapeutics for kidney cancer are making accurate sub-classification of tumor type important for optimizing treatment choices and improving outcomes,” Berlin said.