Veracyte Says Genomic Test Can Reduce Invasive Lung Procedures

By Ron Shinkman, Editor, Laboratory Industry Report

The California-based molecular laboratory Veracyte has published a new study suggesting its Percepta bronchial genomic test can reduce the rate of invasive procedures to make a diagnosis of lung cancer.

The study, published in the journal BMC Pulmonary Medicine, focused on 36 patients who were suspected of possibly having lung cancer and underwent an inconclusive bronchoscopy. In most cases, a lung biopsy is usually ordered.

Among those patients believed to be at low risk of actually having the disease, the use of the classifier test reduced the rate of invasive test orders from 57 percent to 18 percent. For those at intermediate risk, they rose from 50 percent to 65 percent.

Overall, the rate of invasive procedures ordered decreased from 54 percent to 41 percent. But among those diagnosed with malignant lung cancer, the use of the Percepta assay increased the use of an invasive procedure from 50 percent to 64 percent.

"When a patient with a suspicious lung nodule is left without answers after a bronchoscopy, physicians often recommend additional invasive testing to reduce the chances of missing a malignancy, even though we know that a significant fraction of the nodules we see are not cancer," said J. Scott Ferguson, M.D., associate professor of pulmonology and critical care at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and lead author of the study.