PreciseBreast, an AI-powered digital morphology tool, has a fast turnaround time and is cost-effective compared to gene expression tests.
By Chris Wolski
Today’s clinicians have many tools to fight breast cancer, and a new one is entering the market. PreciseDx’s PreciseBreast isa digital morphology solution that is currently undergoing its analytical validation.
The validation for the LDT was published in Clinical Breast Cancer.
The PreciseBreast Assay uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning combined with its digital morphology feature array to analyze invasive breast cancer (IBC) histology images with the purpose of enhancing and improving the traditional grading approach. PreciseBreast is an in vitro prognostic test that predicts breast cancer recurrence for patients diagnosed with early-stage IBC.
PreciseDx’s artificial intelligence interrogates every cell on a breast cancer histology slide, examining 10,000 cellular characteristics and millions of data points from each slide. The AI then scores the results either with a rating of “high” or “low” possibility of recurrence. According the PreciseDx CEO Wayne Brinster, the accuracy rate of PreciseBreast is 70% to 90%.
All samples are provided for PreciseDx, which runs the test. And labs don’t have to worry about installing a specialized system to communicate with PreciseBreast.
“We have a lot of ways to read slides regardless of the system used for capturing the image,” says Brinster.
When the scan is complete, the results are returned to the lab with a full, interactive report. The interactivity assists pathologists with doing their own review, according to Brinster.
“It’s a nice tool for pathologists,” he says. “They feel confident in what we’re saying, and provides a personalization of the analysis in a much deeper way.”
Brinster says that the digital morphology solution provides labs, pathologists, and the entire health care team two distinct advantages: fast turnaround times and a cost-effective price point.
Gene expression tests, which Brinster says are good at identifying potential breast cancer recurrence, can take several weeks to complete. PreciseBreast has a 48-hour turnaround time. Gene expression tests are also significantly more expensive, coming in around $4,000 per test. The PreciseBreast test is priced at about $706.
Though the test is still undergoing its analytical evaluation, Brinster says that the company has established a CPT code for PreciseBreast, which it is working to get finalized.
But PreciseBreast delivers something even more critical—answers.
“It gives as much information as possible to the care team and the best options going forward,” says Brinster.
Chris Wolski is the chief editor of CLP.
Featured Image: An example of a PreciseBreast digital morphology analysis. Image: PreciseDx
