Delivering Cancer Diagnostics Tools

As Yogi Berra famously said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." The Hall of Fame New York Yankees catcher may well be advising the health care industry these days, because when it comes to the new wave of cancer diagnostics, it seems to be just what is happening. Pharma is keenly interested in these tools, which in many cases are aimed at selecting the best therapy for a specific patient, measuring response to therapy and predicting or more sensitively measuring relapse. So are payors. But deciding with whom and how to ally for the development and distribution of these tests is difficult, showing just how uncharted – and bumpy – is the current diagnostics terrain.

Genomic Health Inc. was on the leading edge of this diagnostics wave, with its Oncotype Dx test for predicting response to chemotherapy in breast cancer. Specialty labs like