The inventors discovered that patients having high-risk cutaneous melanoma tumors can be identified by the gene-expression profile signature of their cutaneous melanoma tumors
Castle Biosciences announces issuance of first US patent covering DecisionDx-Melanoma
Castle Biosciences, a skin cancer diagnostics company providing personalized genomic information to improve cancer treatment decisions, announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued the Company its first U.S. patent related to the DecisionDx-Melanoma gene expression profile test for patients with cutaneous melanoma.
Patent No. 10,577,660, issued on March 3, 2020, covers methods of treating cutaneous melanoma in patients having high-risk cutaneous melanoma tumors. The inventors discovered that patients having high-risk cutaneous melanoma tumors can be identified by the gene-expression profile signature of their cutaneous melanoma tumors. The term of the patent extends until September 2034. This brings the total number of issued or allowed patents related to the Company’s DecisionDx-Melanoma test to 10.
“We are pleased to have been issued our first U.S. patent covering DecisionDx-Melanoma,” said Derek Maetzold, Castle’s president and chief executive officer. “In the United States, we estimate approximately 130,000 patients are diagnosed with Stage I-III cutaneous melanoma each year. The clinical use of DecisionDx-Melanoma is designed to optimize post-diagnostic treatment decisions, including sentinel lymph node biopsy, frequency of follow-up and the need for imaging, which we believe will lead to improved health outcomes for patients with skin cancer.”
Castle Biosciences’ DecisionDx-Melanoma test is a 31-gene expression profile prognostic test for cutaneous melanoma that predicts 5-year risk of metastasis as low risk (Class 1, 1A lowest risk) or high risk (Class 2, 2B highest risk), as well as metastasis to the sentinel lymph node, based on an individual patient’s tumor biology.
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Source: Company Press Release