Myriad launches breast cancer recurrence diagnostic

Myriad Genetics is rolling out a prognostic test for early-stage breast cancer that gauges the risk of cancer recurrence after surgery and identifies patients who can safely skip chemotherapy.

The second-generation, multigene test helps physicians personalize treatment by assessing the 10-year risk of recurrence following surgery for patients with ER-positive, HER2-negative, early-stage breast cancer, Myriad said in a statement. It also determines which patients may safely opt out of chemotherapy after having undergone other treatments, such as surgery or radiation.

“[There] is a critical need for accurate breast cancer recurrence tests that help physicians determine which patients can safely forgo adjuvant chemotherapy,” Myriad Chief Medical Officer Johnathan Lancaster said in the statement.

“By automatically incorporating clinical features and generating an individualized patient test result, EndoPredict identifies a larger subset of true low-risk patients who may safely forgo adjuvant chemotherapy,” he said.

The company picked up the EndoPredict test in its $39 million acquisition of Sividon Diagnostics last summer. At the time, Myriad expected to reel in about $8 million in revenue in 2017 from the purchase.

Myriad pounced on the Siemens spinout just as it was gaining ground in reimbursement for the test. So far, EndoPredict has collected 19 positive coverage decisions. Myriad is working with payers to boost coverage beyond the 70 million in the U.S. who are already covered for EndoPredict.