Cancer Testing Market to Experience Better Than Average Growth

In 2011, the personalized medicine testing market exceeded USD 28 billion.

The personalized medicine testing market is comprised of tests that are used to determine the appropriate therapeutic on an individual patient. This also includes new molecular tests based on proven biomarkers, as well as routine glucose and microbial identification tests.

According to a report by Kalorama Information (New York, NY, USA) a medical research publisher, tissue diagnostics, in particular tests that determine therapy for cancer, are leading personalized medicine. These should experience better than average IVD industry revenue-growth rates in the next five years.
Pathologists examine specific protein and molecular structures in fixed tissues, body fluids, and cells using personalized tissue-based tests such as the immunohistochemical stain (IHC) and in situ hybridization (ISH). The type of cancer, the stage, and the degree to which the cancer has invaded healthy tissue is determined from biopsies.

“Tissue-based diagnostic testing continues to serve as one of the gold standards for cancer diagnosis,” said Shara Rosen, lead diagnostic analyst for Kalorama Information and author of the report.

To improve patient survival rates, therapies in the oncology marketplace are being combined with predictive biomarkers to help select patients who will respond to specific drugs. The report finds that tissue diagnostics will be in high demand and produce a strong market with many growth opportunities.

The application of pharmacodiagnostic histology is becoming more sophisticated. Many of these tests are used as companion tests for targeted drugs and also in test services. DNA and RNA extracted from tissue samples are analyzed using mass spectroscopy, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and sequencing. Tests have also been developed to assess radiosensitivity of tumors.

The market leaders in this pharmacodiagnostic histology are Dako (Herzlia, Israel), Abbott Diagnostics (Abbott Park, IL, USA) and Roche/Ventana Medical (Tucson, AZ, USA). China Medical (Beijing, China) is dedicated to making locally produced pharmacodiagnostic histology available.

Kalorama Information supplies the latest independent medical market research in diagnostics, biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and healthcare; as well as a full range of custom research services. Kalorama routinely assists the media with healthcare topics.