Abstract
To learn more about disease and treatment, RNA is also an option. Myriad Genetics offers two RNA-based approaches. For women diagnosed with early stage, estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer, Myriad's EndoPredict test looks at the RNA expression from 12 genes and a collection of clinical information, including the grade of the tumor, nodal status, and other features. “If the test indicates a high risk of disease recurrence, then surgery, endocrine therapy and chemotherapy would be recommended,” said Myriad's CSO Jerry Lanchbury. “If the algorithm indicates low risk, then the patient needs only surgery and endocrine therapy.”
For men with prostate cancer, Myriad developed its Prolaris test, which predicts the aggression of a disease. “This uses 46 genes monitored at the RNA level, and other clinical risk factors,” Lanchbury said. “It's able to predict which men have high risk and which have low risk of disease progression. Men at low risk go into active surveillance, which allows them to keep their prostate, sexual function and continence. Men at high risk can receive single or multimodal therapy, which may improve their health outcomes.”
When asked about using RNA instead of DNA, Lanchbury said RNA is a better integrator of the information. A tumor's state of proliferation depends on many things, and some of them—like methylation of some genes or rearrangements—can be difficult to see in DNA sequencing, but appear in the RNA.
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