NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Myriad Genetics has signed a three-year contract with national payor UnitedHealthcare to provide access to its next-generation sequencing myRisk Hereditary Cancer test to beneficiaries who meet certain eligibility criteria for hereditary cancer risk.
The myRisk test gauges 25 genes associated with eight hereditary cancers, including breast, colon, ovarian, endometrial, pancreatic, prostate, and gastric cancers, and melanoma.
At the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in December, Myriad presented data from a large prospective study that found that its myRisk Hereditary Cancer panel was able to identify 51 percent more patients with a heightened risk for familial breast and ovarian cancer compared to testing just the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Previously, the firm had shown that the myRisk test picked up 61 percent more patients at risk for hereditary colon cancer compared to standard genetic testing for the disease.
Myriad launched myRisk to a group of early-access customers last September.
The diagnostics firm also sells BRACAnalysis, its best-selling test which gauges BRCA1/2 mutations associated with increased risk of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. However, Myriad plans to transition all its hereditary cancer risk testing to the myRisk panel by the summer of 2015.