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Precision Medicine

Bringing the Value of NGS Into Clearer Focus

Labcorp Oncology is helping to fulfill the promise of precision medicine by bringing broad genomic profiling technologies, such as next-generation sequencing (NGS), to more people with cancer. We are uniquely positioned—at the intersection of drug development and patient care—to make more personalized health care a reality for all.

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We’re Advancing Precision Medicine
With Patients in Mind 

See how we’re reimagining precision medicine throughout a patient’s journey 

NGS Testing Identifies the Right
Precision Medicines for the Right Patients

NGS is a validated tool for informing, streamlining and speeding up selection of optimal cancer treatments, including clinical trials, with high accuracy. It is often used to determine the DNA or RNA sequence to highlight genetic variations that can lead to diseases or other biological conditions. And its capability to efficiently sequence multiple DNA strands at the same time has revolutionized the world of genomics. 

Growing evidence suggests that patients who receive NGS as part of their screening or diagnostic testing are positioned for better outcomes.1

Furthermore, clinical guidelines suggest adding comprehensive genomic profiling via a validated NGS assay at various stages of the care continuum for specific cancer types. And its use is particularly advised for patients with advanced or metastatic disease.2
 

Precision Medicine

So Why Is NGS Not Used More Often? 

Despite the evidence and guideline recommendations, today NGS testing remains underutilized. 

The development of targeted molecular therapies has changed the treatment paradigm of late-stage metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (mNSCLC)—one of the most NGS-tested malignancies; however: 

<50%

of patients with mNSCLC receive NGS as part of
their cancer screening and treatments.3

The perceived challenges of using NGS could be contributing to this underutilization.

Labcorp Oncology Helps You
Overcome the Perceived Challenges of NGS

Challenge #1:

Lack of Clarity on the Clinical Utility of NGS

Shining Light on Appropriate Use of NGS

We know that it’s not always clear when NGS should be implemented in cancer care and which patients can benefit from it the most. Clinical practice guidelines recommend the use of NGS for broad genomic profiling in the following tumor types in daily practice:

Lungs icon

Lung Cancer2

Colorectal

Colon Cancer2

Prostate

Prostate Cancer2

hematological

Hematology-oncology4*

Our NGS tests offer insights into appropriate treatment options for many of these malignancies

NGS Is Also Recommended for Use in Other Cancer Types 

There are certain malignancies for which the use of NGS is less established, but growing evidence suggests that advanced genomic testing could be an appropriate option, particularly in the clinical trial setting. We have NGS testing options available for solid tumors and hematologic malignancies, including:

When you encounter patients who are living with any of these conditions, we’re here to help you identify the optimal treatment paths through our comprehensive NGS offerings.

Complete List of Our NGS and Precision Medicine Tests

If you need support determining which tests are most relevant for your patients, our team of experts is ready to explain the practical applications of our testing options.

Challenge #2:

Making Sense of Complex Reports

Our Clear and Concise Reports Can Help Guide Your Treatment Recommendations

NGS reports can be hard to understand, often comprised of multiple pages of data without clear insights or direction. That’s why we continue to improve our reports to include actionable insights, including likely response to therapy, guidelines-based treatment recommendations and suggestions for nearby clinical trials.

Omniseq Report

Challenge #3:

High Cost

We’re Improving Access to Diagnostics and Treatments

We understand that NGS testing can come with a high price tag, but we don’t want costs to get in the way of patients receiving necessary diagnostic tests. So we work with payers and managed care organizations to demonstrate how our advanced genomic tests will improve patient outcomes. As a result, we are continuously increasing patient access to the full range of treatments and diagnostics available with minimum out-of-pocket (OOP) costs.

See How We Can Help

We Bring Biomarker Expertise
You Can Depend On

In an era of rapid advancement in targeted therapies and immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, biomarker tests are critical to optimize these treatments to an individual patient. You can count on us for your biomarker testing needs because we’ve been at the forefront of advancing the understanding and use of biomarkers for over 20 years.

Biomarker Graphic

We Have a Proven Track Record of
Introducing Reliable Companion Diagnostics

<60%

Labcorp-supported diagnostics

We have played a key role in implementing companion diagnostics for a number of precision medicines, including immunotherapies that target PD-L1. Our Central Lab Services (CLS) were exclusively responsible for testing specimens for PD-L1 expression in the registration trials for pembrolizumab and nivolumab, with Labcorp being the first to commercialize the specific tests for some indications.

Here’s a list of a few of the biomarkers for which we offer testing.

BiomarkerRelevant Tumor / Cancer TypesTherapeutic Opportunity
BCR-ABLChronic myeloid leukemia (CML)Imatinib, nilotinib, dasatinib, bosutinib and ponatinib
EGFRNSCLCOsimertinib, afatinib and erlotinib
IDH1, IDH2and FLT3Acute myeloid leukemia (AML)Ivosidenib, enasidenib, midostaurin and gilteritinib
KRASNon-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), colorectal cancerSotorasib, cetuximab and panitumumab
PD-L1NSCLC, Gastric/GEJ adeno, cervical cancer, SCCHN, TNBC, urothelialPembrolizumab, nivolumab and atezolizumab
PIK3CABreast cancerAlpelisib

Our Test Menu

Our companion diagnostics can help you transform personalized medicine into patient well-being and our comprehensive menu features more than 450 single analyte and multi-marker tests to cover
every stage of cancer care.

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