Biodesix’s VeriStrat® Test Is Cost Saving, Can Help Optimize End-of-Life Care
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Today, Biodesix®, Inc. will present the results of a new study demonstrating that VeriStrat testing and other tools can help physicians improve quality care and cancer care planning for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer enabling them to achieve and improve their quality metrics.
The data will be presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the International Society For Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, in Boston, MA, USA. Poster Title: “Precise prognosis, key to cancer care planning and reaching Medicare quality measures; how the VeriStrat test can help”; Argento C.; Arnaud A. Poster Presentation: 3:45PM-7:45PM, May 22 Location: Board K18, Hynes Convention Center, Hall C.
Increased focus on quality of care and pay-for-performance programs have driven new attention to prognosis and cancer care planning. While prognosis is central to quality cancer care planning, prognosis based on observable patient characteristics such as age, performance status and cancer stage is imprecise. VeriStrat can help physicians make more informed survival estimates and improve cancer care planning to reach high quality care, as defined by the various Medicare pay-for-performance quality metrics.
“Prognosis is central to advanced care planning, and prognostic test results can help physicians reach Medicare pay-for-performance metrics, while improving quality of life for patients,” said David Brunel, CEO of Biodesix.
The study is based on a systematic literature review of publications in NCBI of clinical trials, survey-based studies, guidelines and reports on four oncology topics: the impact of knowing prognosis on treatment decisions; the components of advanced care planning (prognosis, goals of treatment and expected response to treatment); the impact of care planning on quality of life and costs; and current tools and prognostication methods. 308 publications relevant to the topics were reviewed.
Among the study’s findings:
• Patients with poor prognosis are more likely to favor quality of life over life extension when planning for care. Patients who thought they had at least a 10% chance they would not live 6 months were less likely to favor life-extending therapy over comfort care compared to patients who thought were going to live for at least 6 months.
• Despite it being a difficult conversation, patients want to know their prognosis. Studies consistently report that over 95% of patients want to know their prognosis even if it is poor. Precise prognosis is difficult to estimate using normal patient characteristics and the VeriStrat test’s prognostic value can help predict prognosis in patients with cancer. The VeriStrat test is a predictive and prognostic blood-based proteomic test that helps guide treatment decisions for patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. The test is used to assess disease aggressiveness by characterizing host response to the tumor, classifying patients as either VeriStrat-Good or VeriStrat-Poor.
