THE NATIONAL COMPREHENSIVE CANCER NETWORK approved the VeriStrat predictive proteomics test for inclusion in its Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. The test is developed by Biodesix Inc.
The updated guidelines recommend clinicians’ use of VeriStrat, a blood-based protein profiling test, to help determine whether patients entering the second line of treatment for NSCLC should be considered as candidates to receive the targeted drug erlotinib (Tarceva).
The guidelines state: “Recommended proteomic testing for patients with NSCLC and wild-type EGFR or with unknown EGFR status. A patient with a ‘poor’ classification should not be offered erlotinib in the second-line setting.” Erlotinib, an epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy, is commonly used in NSCLC patients who harbor an activating EGFR mutation.
An independent phase III clinical trial (PROSE) for VeriStrat confirmed the test’s results are prognostic and specifically predictive of differential overall survival benefit for erlotinib versus chemotherapy in the second-line setting. Successful trial results were recently published in The Lancet Oncology.
