MedGenome launches TMB test for cancer immuno-therapy

The test will help clinicians identify how many mutations occur in a given length of DNA to understand whether immunotherapy would work MedGenome Labs has launched Tumor Mutation Burden (TMB) test to help clinicians take informed decision on immuno-therapy for their cancer patients. Dr VL Ramprasad, CEO, MedGenome Labs said “This is a revolutionary step in the field of cancer and will change the way immunotherapy is prescribed in cancer. The test will help clinicians identify how many mutations occur in a given length of DNA to understand whether immunotherapy would work. TMB test by MedGenome provides quantification in terms of TMB score as well as accurate information on actionable gene mutations. Extensive validation for TMB panel was performed in-house on different cancer types from Indian population and international reference standards.” Dr Shyam Aggarwal, Senior Consultant- Medical Oncology, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi said, “The ready availability and adoption of immune check point inhibitor drugs have changed the clinical practice for managing advanced cancers successfully in recent times. However, this has enhanced the need to identify predictive biomarkers to identify patients that are most likely to respond to these immunotherapy medicines. Clinical evidence demonstrates that treatment with immune drugs can have considerable benefit across several tumours. MSI and PDL1 testing is routinely advised for these patients to select immune drugs. Tumour Mutation Burden (TMB) is one such emerging comprehensive predictive biomarker that identifies patients who are most likely to respond to immunotherapy.”