NEW YORK – Cancer diagnostics firm Oncocyte said Wednesday that the US Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded it a Federal Supply Schedule contract for its DetermaRx test, a prognostic assay to aid treatment decisions after lung cancer removal surgery.
The five-year contract will pay for use of the test in early-stage lung cancer patients among the VA's enrolled population of over 9 million. The order lists the contract's total value at almost $3 million.
"Veterans and their families treated at VA and Military Health System medical centers will now have access to our lung cancer test, which informs timely, life-saving treatment decisions following surgery," Oncocyte CEO Ron Andrews said in a statement.
DetermaRx is a 14-gene, PCR-based gene expression assay, performed on tissue samples, that identifies patients at high risk of recurrence following surgery who may benefit from adjuvant drug treatment to eliminate residual cancer cells. Oncocyte has also found in studies that patients whose test results indicate low risk have a 94 percent survival rate without adjuvant chemotherapy treatment, suggesting that this population could avoid the expense and side effects associated with treatment and instead undergo surveillance.