Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX) watched its shares move earthward Tuesday, as the leading U.S. 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, according to this morning’s news release, “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).”
Said company official Kristie Dolan, "By leveraging our scale, we can provide MelaNodal Predict to patients and treating physicians across the country to support clinical decision making. The MelaNodal Predict test's results will help physicians identify their patient's risk of metastasis to assist in individualizing surgical decisions and patient management plans."
DGX shares lost 45 cents to $129.56.
