Myriad Genetics has launched a 46-gene prognostic test Prolaris which quantitatively determines the risk of recurrence in patients who have undergone prostatectomy surgery.
Myriad’s Prolaris is a molecular diagnostic assay that offers urologists a more accurate way of determining a prostate cancer patient’s risk of recurrence. The new molecular diagnostic test is based on cell growth and tumor biology and provides rigorous, quantitative measures of the expression levels of multiple genes related to progression of the cell cycle.
The test identifies patients at low risk of disease recurrence with 95% certainty giving these men confidence that additional treatment with the accompanying toxicity and adverse events is likely unwarranted. Conversely, men with high Prolaris scores would be considered for more intensive screening and adjuvant therapy to address their more aggressive disease.
Myriad Genetics has been performing additional clinical validation studies to expand the utility of Prolaris. In one such recently completed study of 365 prostate cancer patients, 98.5% of prostate cancer patients with a low (favorable) Prolaris score survived their disease after 10 years, compared to 57.6% of the patients receiving a high (unfavorable) score who died of prostate cancer within 10 years.
Myriad said that it would introduce Prolaris to urologists and oncologists through its oncology sales force and new urology sales team in the coming weeks.
Peter Carroll, professor and chair of urology at University of California, San Francisco, said: “After undergoing a radical prostatectomy, men often worry about their continuing risk of cancer recurrence. Prolaris may offer very important information to the patient and his physician about the risk of his cancer recurring.”
Mark Capone, president of Myriad Genetic Laboratories, said:”Prolaris is a valuable additional tool that will enable urologists to provide an accurate, individualized recurrence risk score to men who have undergone a radical prostatectomy. We view Prolaris as the first of a strong emerging stable of RNA signature tools based on fundamental tumor biology which Myriad will offer to the urology/oncology community.”