The American Gastroenterological Association recently published a best practice advice article stating that the TissueCypher Barrett’s oesophagus test may be beneficial for risk-stratification in cases of non-dysplastic Barrett’s oesophagus (BE).
TissueCypher is Castle Bioscience’s test for patients with BE that is designed to predict progression to high-grade dysplasia (HGD) and/or oesophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). The best practice advice article from the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), entitled ‘AGA Clinical Practice Update on New Technology and Innovation for Surveillance and Screening in Barrett’s Esophagus: Expert Review’, was recently published online in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology and can be viewed here.
“Current approaches for risk stratification of patients with BE, both in community practice and academic clinical settings, are limited to subjective systems that have failed to stem the rapid rise in the incidence of EAC over the last few decades”
“TissueCypher is designed to identify patients diagnosed with Barrett’s oesophagus who may progress to HGD or EAC at a rate five to ten times higher than the current standard of care. This type of personalised risk-stratification information can potentially save lives when patients at high-risk of progression are identified early and provided with risk-appropriate treatments. Current approaches for risk stratification of patients with BE, both in community practice and academic clinical settings, are limited to subjective systems that have failed to stem the rapid rise in the incidence of EAC over the last few decades,” said Dr Robert Cook, senior vice president of research and development at Castle Biosciences.
“TissueCypher can be a game-changing innovation in this clinical area through its ability to identify patients at risk of progression to HGD and EAC, who are often missed due to reliance on traditional histopathology and clinical variables, and also predict future progression to oesophageal cancer, two, three or even five years post endoscopy. Based on the published clinical data, the AGA agreed that TissueCypher may be beneficial as part of an improved care pathway for managing patients with BE.”
AGA’s clinical practice updates present the current state-of-the-art guidance and include a combination of evidence-based information, and when not available, best consensus opinion concerning the management of gastrointestinal (GI) diseases. AGA’s latest update on BE was an expert review commissioned jointly by the AGA Institute Clinical Practice Updates Committee, the AGA Center for GI Innovation and Technology and the AGA Governing Board. It includes a number of Best Practice Advice statements (BPAs) intended to provide practical advice on the management of BE based on expert opinion and a review of existing literature.