Sunday, January 4, 2015

Prostate Cancer Markers

The MAC, has just announced reimbursement for three prostate cancer genetic tests. As OncLive states: 

After months of delay, the Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC), with jurisdiction over most molecular diagnostic tests used to treat cancer, made a series of decisions this fall that will allow Medicare reimbursement for several well-known tests, including 3 used in the treatment of prostate cancer.

Specifically the tests were:

1. ConfirmMDx by Oral Oncolytics which is a methylation test. We considered this in WP 116.

2. Prolaris by Myriad which is a complex gene test which we considered in WP 107.

3. Decipher by GenomeDx which is akin to Prolaris.

The methylation test has interesting merit and the others seem correlative at best. One of the problems of prognostic tests as to more aggressive PCa is just what does one do next?