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... led to targeted cancer therapies that can improve patient survival and quality life. Treatment with targeted therapy often requires diagnostic testing to analyze biological samples taken from patients to identify and evaluate cancer biomarkers. Testing patients for specific biomarkers is integral to precision medicine in cancer care, but despite evidence pointing to the clinical benefits associated with biomarker testing, routine clinical use does not always follow, and testing rates lag behind clinical guideline recommendations. As highlighted in a recent ACS CAN survey of cancer patients and survivors, only one-third of respondents reported having biomarker testing. Of those who reported not receiving biomarker testing, more than a quarter said it was because insurance would not cover it or ...

Pharmacogenomic (PGx) testing (also known as pharmacogenomic biomarker testing) is a component of precision medicine that involves examining a patient’s inherited genes to detect variations that may impact the way a ... treatment given to patients with the same disease can produce different responses based on each person's inherited genes. Pharmacogenomic (PGx) Testing: Tests Guide Appropriate Drug Selection and Dosing ...

Biomarker testing is critical to successfully realizing personalized medicine, both through the selection of appropriate targeted therapies as well as by directing patients to relevant clinical trials.  This report examines the private payer landscape of coverage for tumor biomarker tests in lung, breast and colorectal cancer.   The report was compiled in 2018, and indications are that coverage has improved since ...