On August 9, 2017, Exosome Diagnostics, a leader in the liquid biopsy market, announced the launch of the MedOncAlyzer 170, the first liquid biopsy pan-cancer panel that simultaneously interrogates exosomal RNA (exoRNA) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in a single assay. The MedOncAlyzer 170 is a targeted panel for tumor profiling that identifies clinically actionable and functionally important mutations across multiple cancer types starting from a small volume (≥ 0.5ml) of patient blood or plasma. “The MedOncAlyzer is the only cancer panel on the market that interrogates information on both RNA and DNA, giving it a higher sensitivity compared to ctDNA assays when profiling early-stage and late-stage cancers in plasma,” said Johan Skog, PhD, Chief Science Officer of Exosome Diagnostics. “ctDNA-only solutions are seeing their most accurate measurements in late-stage cancers. The primary drivers of ctDNA release into the bloodstream are apoptosis and necrosis of tumor cells. Existing solutions that rely on ctDNA alone are building a profile of the tumor that is biased towards consequences of cell death. Exosomes, in contrast, are actively released by living cells including viable tumor cells. The MedOncAlyzer, with its unique ability to co-isolate RNA and DNA, is balanced to produce accurate, highly sensitive identification of rare variants through all stages of disease progression and treatment, including RNA variants that cannot be seen on ctDNA.”Login Or Register To Read Full Story