Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Clarient to Offer Qiagen's Therascreen KRAS Assay as CDx for Erbitux

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Qiagen today said that GE company Clarient will offer its therascreen KRAS RGQ PCR kit as a companion diagnostic.

Clarient will offer the test to help guide the use of Erbitux (cetuximab) for treating patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Clarient chose the therascreen KRAS assay and Qiagen's Rotor-Gene Q molecular diagnostic platform after the US Food and Drug Administration approved the test in July, Qiagen said.

Clarient provides cancer laboratory testing services in the US.

The therascreen KRAS assay detects KRAS gene mutations and is used to help physicians predict which patients will likely respond to EGFR inhibitors, a class of drugs that includes Erbitux. Qiagen, which last night announced that its fourth-quarter revenues rose 4 percent, said that studies indicate that the US healthcare system could save more than $600 million annually by determining KRAS status in colorectal cancer patients and eliminating the unnecessary use of medicines.

Erbitux is marketed in the US by Bristol-Myers Squibb along with Eli Lily and its Imclone Systems unit. Outside of the US and Canada, it is sold by Germany's Merck KGaA.

"We believe precision medicine is the new direction in diagnosing and treating cancer and Clarient uses state-of-the-art diagnostic technologies like the therascreen KRAS test to bring clarity and precision to physicians to assist them in making better treatment decisions for their patients," Carrie Eglinton Manner, CEO of Clarient, said in a statement. "Clarient’s comprehensive offering and fast turnaround time coupled with our experience with the therascreen KRAS test permits us to provide a higher level of performance."

The Scan

Positive Framing of Genetic Studies Can Spark Mistrust Among Underrepresented Groups

Researchers in Human Genetics and Genomics Advances report that how researchers describe genomic studies may alienate potential participants.

Small Study of Gene Editing to Treat Sickle Cell Disease

In a Novartis-sponsored study in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that a CRISPR-Cas9-based treatment targeting promoters of genes encoding fetal hemoglobin could reduce disease symptoms.

Gut Microbiome Changes Appear in Infants Before They Develop Eczema, Study Finds

Researchers report in mSystems that infants experienced an enrichment in Clostridium sensu stricto 1 and Finegoldia and a depletion of Bacteroides before developing eczema.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treatment Specificity Enhanced With Stem Cell Editing

A study in Nature suggests epitope editing in donor stem cells prior to bone marrow transplants can stave off toxicity when targeting acute myeloid leukemia with immunotherapy.