Myriad touts 10-year data for prostate cancer screen

Myriad Genetics unveiled new data showing its prostate cancer diagnostic could accurately predict the 10-year risk of metastasis in men who have been treated for the disease.

The test, Prolaris, is an RNA-expression test that looks at individual patients’ risk of developing prostate cancer, which may be used to determine the course of treatment.

The new study, which will be presented at the American Urological Association’s annual meeting, followed 767 men with localized prostate cancer, according to a statement. They underwent the Prolaris test to predict the risk of metastatic disease up to 10 years after diagnosis.

The data show that 5% of the patients developed metastases, while 4.3% of the patients who had undergone definitive treatment—surgery, radiation, or radiation and hormones—developed metastases, the company said.

The study found that the higher a patient’s Prolaris test score, the higher his risk for metastasis—each one-unit increase in score correlated with nearly triple the risk.

“Our study confirmed that the Prolaris test significantly predicts which men are likely to develop metastatic disease, regardless of race, risk group or treatment approach,” said Stephen Bardot, M.D., who conducted the study. “This study also included a large group of [African-American] men which have historically been underrepresented in clinical outcomes studies. This study demonstrated that Prolaris provided more accurate precision in providing prognosis in African-American and non-African-Americans equally.”

Now, Myriad will include metastasis risk in the Prolaris test report.

“We have multiple outcome studies that show the ability of Prolaris to predict the 10-year risk of prostate cancer specific mortality, and we now have two studies that predict the risk that treatment will fail and men will end up with metastatic disease.,” said Michael Brawer, M.D., Myriad’s senior vice president of medical affairs, in the statement. We are excited to provide all of this relevant information in a single test report for clinicians.”