Posted by Michael Wonder on 26 Feb 2018
A new regulatory threat to cancer patients
25 February 2018 - Washington may impose needless limits on genetic testing.
The federal government is threatening to limit treatment options for doctors fighting cancer. A regulatory decision due Wednesday from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could undermine the care delivered to the more than 1.6 million Americans who are diagnosed with cancer each year.
At issue is whether reimbursements will be available to most physicians, hospitals and patients for a diagnostic technology known as next-generation sequencing. A cornerstone of the emerging field of precision medicine, NGS tests analyse molecular changes that occur in cancerous tumours and show up in biopsies.
