Quest Diagnostics Debuts MelaNodal Predict™ Test, Personalizing Melanoma Risk Prediction to Help Patients Forgo Invasive Surgery
Source: PR Newswire, February 2024
SECAUCUS, N.J., and SAN DIEGO, Feb. 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX), the nation’s leading provider of diagnostic information services, today announced the launch of MelaNodal Predict™, a highly advanced predictive gene expression test to help personalize treatment decisions for patients with melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer and one of the most common cancers in the United States. Dermatologists and other providers nationwide may begin ordering the test today from Quest Diagnostics, as well as through Dermpath Diagnostics, Quest’s subspecialty pathology business.
MelaNodal Predict is a lab-developed test validated by Quest Diagnostics and based on technology developed by SkylineDx, an oncology biotechnology company, alongside Mayo Clinic. The technology utilizes a combination analysis of patient age and tumor thickness with advanced gene expression profiling technology. MelaNodal Predict examines a patient’s original diagnostic tumor biopsy and applies an algorithm to help providers identify patients with a low or high risk of nodal metastasis (melanoma that has spread to the lymph nodes).
This insight may help providers identify patients that could, with less risk, avoid a potentially unnecessary, expensive and invasive surgery called a sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB). If the algorithm classifies a patient as low risk, they may be able to choose to forgo the procedure. More than 8 in 10 patients who have an SLNB are negative for nodal metastasis, based on post-surgical analysis.