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Bio-Reference Laboratories Announces K-ras Testing Availability through GenPath
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Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc. has announced that K-ras mutation testing for patients with metastatic colorectal (mCRC) or non-small-cell lung (NSCLC) cancers will now be available through the Company’s GenPath division.
GenPath also offers many other tests as a part of their personalized medicine offering. Some of these are CYP2D6 for tamoxifen resistance, CYP2C9/VKORC1 for warfarin metabolism, and UGT1A1 for irinotecan toxicity.
With the addition of K-ras, GenPath has affirmed its stance on the need to promote personalized medicine to tailor the right therapy for the right patient.
According to the NCI, there are about 150,000 new cases of colorectal cancer and 200,000 new cases of lung cancer each year in the US. There is a need for a targeted therapeutic regimen to better treat these patients. Mutations in the K-ras gene are used as molecular markers for the selection of targeted therapy in combination with standard chemotherapy regimens.
Specifically, a class of targeted therapeutics called tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are not as effective if a K-ras mutation is present in the tumor. K-ras mutation assessment is important, then, to predict the effectiveness of these therapies.
Cetuximab (Erbitux®) and panitumumab (Vectibix®) are TKIs that are used to treat patients with mCRC; K-ras mutations in these patients are associated with therapeutic resistance. TKIs such as erlotinib (Tarceva®) and gefitinib (Iressa®) are used in refractory non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, and K-ras mutations may confer resistance to these drugs.
