FRIENDSWOOD, Texas - A recent study published in the journal Cancers has provided evidence that Castle Biosciences Inc .'s (NASDAQ:CSTL) DecisionDx-Melanoma test offers better risk stratification for stage I cutaneous melanoma (CM) patients than the current American Joint Committee on Cancer 8th Edition (AJCC8) staging system.
The study analyzed data from approximately 7,000 patients, revealing the test's potential to guide more personalized treatment and surveillance plans by identifying patients with a higher risk of disease progression.
The research included two large patient cohorts: 5,651 individuals from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program Registries and 1,261 patients from a combined cohort. The SEER cohort was evaluated for melanoma-specific survival (MSS), while the combined cohort was assessed for both recurrence-free survival (RFS) and MSS.
Findings showed that DecisionDx-Melanoma provided a greater distinction between high- and low-risk patients compared to the separation between AJCC8 stages IA and IB. Specifically, in the combined cohort, a Class 2B (high risk) DecisionDx-Melanoma test result was the strongest predictor of recurrence, with a hazard ratio (HR) of 5.16.
In the SEER cohort, a high-risk test result was the sole significant predictor of melanoma-specific mortality, with an HR of 9.23.
The DecisionDx-Melanoma test classifies patients based on their tumor biology into low (Class 1A), intermediate (Class 1B/2A), or high (Class 2B) risk categories for tumor recurrence, metastasis, and melanoma-specific mortality. This gene expression profile test has been ordered over 146,000 times up to September 30, 2023, and has been part of more than 50 peer-reviewed studies.
Castle Biosciences emphasizes the importance of DecisionDx-Melanoma in addressing the clinical gap for patients with stage I CM tumors, who are traditionally considered low risk but may have aggressive tumor biology that is not captured by staging criteria alone.
This study is based on a press release statement and contributes to the growing body of evidence supporting the clinical utility of DecisionDx-Melanoma in the management of cutaneous melanoma.
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