Pathwork Diagnostics Inc, Redwood City, Ca, reports that its Pathwork® Tissue of Origin Test is now covered by SelectHealth, the health insurance arm of Intermountain Healthcare. The Tissue of Origin Test helps identify the primary tumor in difficult to diagnose cancer cases, such as those that are metastatic or with a complex clinical history.

The American Cancer Society estimates that there are 1.5 million new cancer diagnoses annually in the United States. Of these new cases, up to 10% are of tumor types not readily classifiable in the course of the initial diagnostic workup, according to the Pathwork.

These difficult cases, which include metastatic tumors as well as undifferentiated or poorly differentiated tumors, are frustrating for both physicians and patients and expensive to the health care system. For such tumors, some of the existing diagnostic technologies, including imaging and immunohistochemistry, can be subjective, time-consuming and often may not produce a definitive diagnosis. Knowing the primary tumor site–and thus what type of cancer the patient has–with greater certainty enables more appropriate cancer treatment, especially with the increased availability of new, targeted cancer therapies, says the company.

The Pathwork Tissue of Origin Test is the only FDA-cleared molecular diagnostic test for tissue of origin, according to Pathwork. The test has been extensively evaluated in multiple independent studies involving more than 1,100 patient specimens, including large validation studies published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.
About Pathwork Diagnostics

Pathwork Diagnostics is a privately held company that develops and commercializes high-value molecular diagnostics for oncology.

[Source: Pathwork Diagnostics]